HSK 3 · Places

东 dōng “East” in Chinese

Traditional 東

What 东 means

  1. East
  2. host (i.e. sitting on east side of guest)
  3. landlord

How to say 东

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale东dōng1st tone, high and level

东 in a sentence

  1. 太阳从东边升起，西边落下。

    Tàiyáng cóng dōngbian shēngqǐ, xībian luòxià.

    The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

    Sentence #2595789 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们俩一个往东，一个往西。

    Tāmen liǎ yí ge wǎng dōng, yí ge wǎng xī.

    One of them went east and the other went west.

    Sentence #3537620 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 东 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 东 (dōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
东dōngeast
  • 七seven · qī
  • 小small · xiǎo

Memory aidSimplified from 東, drawn from a sack tied at both ends. It was borrowed for “east”.

How to write 东

东 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 东

Words with 东

东西dōngxi · thing东方dōngfāng · the East东北dōngběi · northeast东南dōngnán · southeast房东fángdōng · landlord股东gǔdōng · shareholder东道主dōngdàozhǔ · host东张西望dōngzhāngxīwàng · to look around in all directions

More words: Places & Directions

地方dìfang · place地铁dìtiě · subway地图dìtú · map电梯diàntī · lift附近fùjìn · nearby国家guójiā · country黄河huánghé · Yellow River街道jiēdào · street

FAQs

东 (dōng) means “East” or “host (i.e. sitting on east side of guest)”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it dōng: dōng with a 1st 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, 东 is written 東. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 东 from the suggestions. Typing dong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
东 is an HSK 3 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.