道 - Dong Chinese dictionary

dào

path

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 首 represents the sound.

Components

辶 Meaning component

chuò

walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

首 Sound component

shǒu

head

道 and 首 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.道 /*lˤuʔ-s/, /*[kə.l]ˤuʔ/
首 /*l̥uʔ/, /*l̥uʔ-s/

Evolution

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

道

dào

path, road, street; method, way; road; path; CL:條|条[tiáo],股[gǔ]; principle; truth; morality; reason; skill; method; Dao (of Daoism); to say; to speak; to talk; classifier for long thin things (rivers, cracks etc), barriers (walls, doors etc), questions (in an exam etc), commands, courses in a meal, steps in a process; (old) circuit (administrative division)

Most common words with 道