HSK 5 · Adjectives

呆 dāi “foolish” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 呆 means

  1. foolish
  2. stupid
  3. expressionless
  4. blank

How to say 呆

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale呆dāi1st tone, high and level

呆 in a sentence

  1. 我是个书呆子。

    Wǒ shì ge shūdāizi.

    I’m a bookworm.

    Sentence #4813408 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我在发呆。

    Wǒ zài fādāi.

    I’m daydreaming.

    Sentence #2263259 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 呆 can also mean “to stay”

    呆在家里很无聊。

    Dāi zài jiālǐ hěn wúliáo.

    It’s boring staying at home.

    Sentence #1446982 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 呆 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 呆 (dāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
呆dāifoolish; stupid
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 木tree · mù

How to write 呆

呆 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

呆 (dāi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 呆 (dāi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 呆

Words with 呆

发呆fādāi · to stare blankly

More words: Adjectives

匆忙cōngmáng · hasty粗糙cūcāo · rough大方dàfang · generous大型dàxíng · large单纯dānchún · simple单调dāndiào · monotonous淡dàn · light (in taste or colour)地道dìdao · authentic

FAQs

呆 (dāi) means “foolish” or “stupid”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it dāi: dāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 呆 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 呆 from the suggestions. Typing dai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
呆 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.