Chinese Characters Starting with "D start"

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

dài

Though it looks like 'clothing + replace', 袋 is a

This character looks like 'flesh + earth' — and i

dēng

This character began as feet climbing toward a rit

duàn

This 'break' character began as a pictograph of ha

diào

This ‘fall’ character hides a hand violently yan

dài

This 'wear' character hides a Bronze Age coronatio

dàn

This 'bullet' character began as a bow releasing a

This 'bottom' character began as a person crouchin

dǎo

Originally a hand guiding along a path, 导 evolved

Born as an earthen flood barrier 2,500 years ago,

dāo

This 2-stroke character began as a Bronze Age blad

dǎo

This character began as a Bronze Age sketch of a p

This 'low' character began as a person bowing unde

diū

This 'lose' character began as a hand dropping a b

This 'passing' character began as a bronze-age sur

diǎo

A 3,000-year-old bird pictograph now chirps with t

duàn

This character’s 14 strokes mimic the rhythm of h

diào

This 'transfer' character hides a Bronze Age comma

This ‘answer’ character began as a pictograph of

duǎn

Born from a snapped arrow in ancient bronze inscri

dēng

This six-stroke character began as a detailed bron

duàn

This 'paragraph' character began as a Bronze Age i

duǒ

This 'flower' character isn’t drawn from a plant

dān

This character began as a pictograph of a porter b

dài

Born as a knotted silk sash in ancient rituals, 带

dōng

This 'winter' character began as a pictograph of a

diǎn

Its oracle bone form showed hands lifting a sacred

dāng

Originally a bronze-age image of a blade intercept

dìng

Originally a pictograph of a nail driven under a r

de

This ‘de’ looks like earth (土) holding a footst

dào

This character began as a pictograph of a man's he

dàn

This 'egg' character hides an insect radical — be

Born from bamboo exam slips and brotherly birth or

dǒng

This 'understanding' character literally weighs on

This 'younger brother' character hides an ancient

dàn

Though it looks like 'dawn person,' 但 has nothing

děng

This 'wait' character hides bamboo in plain sight

de

This character started as a warrior grabbing treas

dòng

Originally a bronze-age glyph showing the grueling

dào

Originally an arrow striking its target — now the