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dao

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dao¹

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

From Chinese 刀 (dāo, literally “single-edged blade”). Possibly a doublet of dah.

noun daos

  1. Any of various traditional Chinese swords with a curved, single-edged blade, primarily used for slashing and chopping.

dao²

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

From the pinyin romanization of Chinese 道 (Dào, literally “the Way”) or (dào, "circuit").

proper noun

  1. Chinese, alternative Alternative form of Tao: the way of nature and/or the ideal way to live one's life.

noun daos

  1. historical, uncountable, usually Synonym of circuit: various administrative divisions of imperial and early Republican China.

    Similar: circuit

dao³

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

noun daos

  1. alternative Alternative form of dah (“Burmese knife or sword”).

dao⁴

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

Likely related to one of the preceding words ("Chinese sword", "Burmese knife") or from Indo-Aryan. Compare Bengali দাও (daō).

noun daos

  1. A sword and construction tool of the Naga people of India, which has a wooden hilt and grows wider from the narrow hilt to the wide, flat tip.

dao⁵

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

From Tagalog or Cebuano dao.

noun daos

  1. Dracontomelon dao; a large tree of the family Anacardiaceae; the argus pheasant tree.
  2. The hard strong wood of the dao used for veneers and cabinetwork.

DAO⁶

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

noun DAOs

  1. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of de-asphalted oil, a crude oil refinery process stream.
  2. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of disk-at-once, an optical disk recording mode.
  3. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of data access object, a design pattern.
  4. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of double action only, a trigger mechanism for revolving cylinder and semi-automatic firearms.
  5. abbreviation, acronym, countable, uncountable Acronym of decentralized autonomous organization, an autonomous entity based on smart contracts on a blockchain. As the name suggests, DAOs are autonomous entities that subsist independently from any legal or moral entity. After they have been created and deployed onto the internet, they no longer need (nor heed) their creators.

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism, slang Initialism of Dragon Age: Origins.

    Similar: DA1

Dao⁷

  • /daʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 道 (dào, literally “The Way”).

proper noun

  1. Chinese, alternative Alternative form of Tao (“the way of nature, or ideal way to live one's life”).

DAo⁸

noun

  1. abbreviation Abbreviation of descending aorta

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: tao, oap, island, ofa, dow, pottery, avenue, ceramic, daw, road, knife, sword, daud, daoud, bcm, dagger

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"dao." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dao. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dao. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dao

Chicago

"dao." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dao.

BibTeX
@misc{dao_2026,
  title = {dao},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dao},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}