DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
淘
Mandarin · pinyin táo
Meanings
- to wash (rice, sand etc in water to remove impurities)
- to dredge; to scoop out (sediment or waste)
- (dialect) to hunt for and buy (bargains or second-hand goods)
- (dialect) naughty; mischievous
Characters in this entry
- 淘
- táo · wash in a sieve; weed out
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
2 · tao2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
1character link28same-tone records
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.
Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
tou4
Cantonese word readings for 淘. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
character
- to wash in a container in order to remove impurities; to pan
- (dialectal) to search for goods in an old market
- to dredge; to clean out
- to expend; to consume; to use up; to spend
- (dialectal) naughty; mischievous
- (neologism) to buy on Taobao
- a surname
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack