DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

小道

Mandarin · pinyin xiǎo dào

bypath
trail
bribery as a means of achieving a goal
minor arts (Confucian reference to agriculture, medicine, divination, and other professions unworthy of a gentleman)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4 · xiao3 dao4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

小道 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

bypath; trail
bribery as a means of achieving a goal
(Confucianism) minor arts

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack