HSK 6 · Society

独裁 dúcái “dictatorship” in Chinese

Traditional 獨裁

What 独裁 means

  1. dictatorship
  2. dictatorial

How to say 独裁

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale独dú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale裁cái2nd tone, rising

独裁 in a sentence

  1. 我不是独裁者。

    Wǒ bú shì dúcáizhě.

    I’m not a dictator.

    Sentence #2777872 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

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.

The character 独 (dú) with each of its parts in a different colour
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.

The character 裁 (cái) with each of its parts in a different colour
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.

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

Words related to 独裁

Words with 独

Words with 裁

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.

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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.