DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

曹操

Mandarin · pinyin Cáo Cāo

Cao Cao (155-220), famous statesman and general at the end of Han, noted poet and calligrapher, later warlord, founder and first king of Cao Wei 曹魏, father of Emperor Cao Pi 曹丕
the main villain of novel the Romance of Three Kingdoms 三國演義

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

曹: cáo · ministry officials; surname
操: cāo · conduct, run, control, manage

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–1 · Cao2 Cao1

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.

曹操 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗