HSK 6 · Objects

古董 gǔdǒng “antique” in Chinese

Said as gúdǒng

Same in Traditional

What 古董 means

  1. antique
  2. curio

How to say 古董

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale古gǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale董dǒng3rd tone, dipping

Said as gúdǒng. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. How tone changes work

古董 in a sentence

  1. 她对古董很感兴趣。

    Tā duì gǔdǒng hěn gǎn xìngqù.

    She’s very interested in antiques.

    Sentence #856672 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她看古董的眼光很好。

    Tā kàn gǔdǒng de yǎnguāng hěn hǎo.

    She has a good eye for antiques.

    Sentence #8739479 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他偶然在古董店里发现了这个旧硬币。

    Tā ǒurán zài gǔdǒng diàn lǐ fāxiàn le zhè ge jiù yìngbì.

    He came across this old coin by chance in an antique shop.

    Sentence #337324 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 古董 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 古 (gǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
古gǔancient
  • 十ten · shí
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 董 (dǒng) with each of its parts in a different colour
董dǒngto supervise
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 重heavy · chóngSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 重 (chóng) hints at the sound. Compare it with dǒng.

How to write 古董

古 5 strokes · 董 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 古董

Words with 古

古代gǔdài · ancient times古典gǔdiǎn · classical名胜古迹míngshènggǔjì · famous sights and historic sites古怪gǔguài · strange考古kǎogǔ · archaeology

Words with 董

董事长dǒngshìzhǎng · chairman of the board

More words: Objects & Materials

附件fùjiàn · attachment钩子gōuzi · hook拐杖guǎizhàng · walking stick罐guàn · jar棍棒gùnbàng · club剑jiàn · sword坑kēng · pit孔kǒng · hole

FAQs

古董 (gǔdǒng) means “antique” or “curio”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gǔdǒng: gǔ with a 3rd tone, then dǒng with a 3rd tone. In speech it sounds like gúdǒng. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 古董 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gudong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 古董 from the suggestions. Typing gudong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
古董 is an HSK 6 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.