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

HSK 6

全国人民共同悼念这位英雄。

Quánguó rénmín gòngtóng dàoniàn zhè wèi yīngxióng.

The whole nation mourns this hero together.

HSK 7-9

他写了一首诗悼念亡妻。

Tā xiě le yì shǒu shī dàoniàn wángqī.

He wrote a poem mourning his late wife.

Tips

usage

悼 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese - it lives inside compounds: 悼念 (to mourn), 哀悼 (to grieve), 追悼 (memorial), 悼词 (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.