HSK 6 · Society
独裁 dúcái “dictatorship” in Chinese
Traditional 獨裁
What 独裁 means
- dictatorship
- dictatorial
How to say 独裁
独dú2nd tone, rising
裁cái2nd tone, rising
独裁 in a sentence
How 独裁 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.

独dúalone
- 犭dog form of 犬 · quǎnMeaning part
- 虫insect · chóngSound part
犭 hints at the meaning (dog); 虫 (chóng) hints at the sound. Compare it with dú.

裁cáito cut out
- 十ten · shí
- 戈halberd · gē
- 衣clothes · yī
How to write 独裁
独 9 strokes · 裁 12 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 独裁
Words with 独
独立dúlì · independent独特dútè · unique单独dāndú · alone孤独gūdú · lonely唯独wéidú · only得天独厚détiāndúhòu · richly endowed by nature
Words with 裁
总裁zǒngcái · president (of a company)裁缝cáifeng · tailor裁判cáipàn · referee裁员cáiyuán · to cut staff制裁zhìcái · sanctions体裁tǐcái · genre
More words: Society & Law
FAQs
独裁 (dúcái) means “dictatorship” or “dictatorial”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it dúcái: dú with a 2nd tone, then cái with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 独裁 is written 獨裁. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ducai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 独裁 from the suggestions. Typing ducai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
独裁 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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.