悼 (dào): to mourn

Meanings

1 to mourn
2 to grieve over
3 to lament (the dead)

Characters

悼

dào

to mourn, to grieve

Examples

全国人民共同悼念这位英雄。

Quánguó rénmín gòngtóng dàoniàn zhèwèi yīngxióng.

The whole nation mourns this hero together.

他写了一首诗悼念亡妻。

Tā xiě le yì shǒu shī dàoniàn wáng qī.

He wrote a poem mourning his late wife.

Tips

usage

悼 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese — it lives inside compounds: 悼念 (dàoniàn, to mourn), 哀悼 (āidào, to grieve), 追悼 (zhuīdào, memorial), 悼词 (dàocí, eulogy). The 忄 (heart) radical signals the emotional weight.

Components

radical

忄 xīn

heart (radical form of 心)

Left heart radical — the side form of 心 compressed to three vertical strokes. Indexes 悼 in the emotion family with 怕, 怀, 悔, 恨 — all naming inner feelings. Mourning is a matter of the heart in classical psychology, so the radical does precise semantic work.

phonetic

卓 zhuó

outstanding; lofty

Right 卓 supplies the sound zhuó → dào through historical drift. There is also a faint semantic resonance: 卓 means 'outstanding, towering,' and 悼 names the grief one feels for someone outstanding who has passed — the heart's response to a person who 'stood tall' and is now gone.