tāo
adjective #29,329

Meanings

  1. 1 (of water) torrential
  2. 2 inundating
  3. 3 overwhelming

Examples

Tāotāo jiāngshuǐ bēnyǒng ér lái.
The torrential river waters surged forward.
Tā tāotāobùjué de jiǎng le liǎng gè xiǎoshí.
He talked on and on without stopping for two hours.

Tips

usage
is primarily a bound form that appears in compounds: 滔滔 (torrential; voluble), (overwhelming, sky-high — said of waves, crimes, anger), 滔滔不绝 (to talk endlessly). It rarely stands alone.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water
is the left-side form of (water). describes water that overflows, surges and crashes — torrential flood-water on a grand scale. Most famous in 滔滔不绝 (talking non-stop, literally water-surging without break). The radical is essential to the image.
phonetic
yǎo
scoop; ladle out
(yǎo) supplies the sound, drifted to tāo. itself shows a hand reaching into a mortar — the act of scooping. The watery surge of leans on this for sound, though one can read it as water needing a giant hand to scoop. Same phonetic: , .

Stroke Order

tāo