董 (dǒng) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

董

dǒng[dong3]Tone 3

Director, to supervise, surname Dong

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · Director, to supervise, surname Dong

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:12

Writing Balance Rule: The top grass radical (艹) should sit lightly and evenly across the top, while the lower body containing 重 must remain vertically centered and balanced without leaning.

1. Meaning

Director or to supervise

Surname DongTo oversee or manage an enterprise

Noun / VerbFormal / Professional#management#leadership#surnames

Sample Usage

他是公司的董事长。
tā shì gōngsī de dǒngshìzhǎng.
He is the chairman of the board of the company.
董事会开会讨论了这项计划。
dǒngshìhuì kāihuì tǎolùn le zhè xiàng jìhuà.
The board of directors held a meeting to discuss this plan.

2. Sound

/[tʊŋ²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

董

dǒngdong3

ˇ(214)

=dǒng

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

dong

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "o" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolar

Sounds like: d sound as in English 'dog'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No puff of air. Tissue remains still (sounds like English 't' in 'stop').

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip pressed against the alveolar ridge behind the upper front teeth, then released gently.

Final Rhyme

ong

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: -ong rhymes with rung

Mouth Shape Guide: Combine initial 'h-' (h) with final '-ong' (oong).

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 starts mid, dips down low into the vocal register, and finishes rising, similar to saying 'What?' in disbelief.

Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, changes to a 2nd tone (rising 35).

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the low-dipping 3rd tone with the 4th falling tone or 1st high level tone when spoken quickly in compound words like dǒngshì.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air with your finger, starting high, dropping low, and rising up at the end.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 12 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The top grass radical (艹) should sit lightly and evenly across the top, while the lower body containing 重 must remain vertically centered and balanced without leaning.

4. Components

Radical 艹 · Grass Radical (Plants, vegetation)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 艹 (Provides the upper botanical canopy classifier or historical root marker)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 重 (original sound: zhòng / chóng / dǒng phonetic core)

The character combines the grass radical (艹) on top with the character for heavy or layers (重) on the bottom, symbolizing a heavy, grounded authority that oversees affairs.

艹 Grass radical on top
重 Heavy / layer element at the bottom providing sound and structural support

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

2· Phonetic Root: 董 (dǒng)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally derived as a phonetic loan and phono-semantic compound where the lower part (重) provides the pronunciation and the upper grass element rounds out the classical glyph structure.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from ancient descriptive uses and clan names to mean supervising, directing, and serving as a board member (董事).

Extremely common in modern corporate governance terminology such as 董事长 (Chairman of the Board).

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

Đổng

Matches the Mandarin 3rd tone with a dipping/glottal quality equivalent to the hỏi tone in Vietnamese.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: トウ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

동

Sound Shift Bridge: Cognate sound bridge via Sino-Xenic traditions links Mandarin 'dǒng' to Vietnamese 'Đổng' and Japanese 'Tou'.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Picture a heavy (重) green plant (艹) sitting right in the boardroom, representing the heavy responsibilities carried by the company DIRECTOR (董) who supervises all operations.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

懂

dǒngto understand+ 忄 (heart)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

懂(dǒng)

懂 has the heart radical (忄) meaning understanding with the heart, while 董 has the grass radical (艹) and is used for directors and surnames.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他是这家跨国公司的[___]长。

Clue: dǒng

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 董 (director/surname) with 懂 (to understand) due to identical pronunciation and similar components.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 董 mean when paired with 事 and 长 (董事长)?

Production: How do you write the character for director or surname Dong with grass on top and heavy at the bottom?

董dǒngDirector, to supervise, surname Dong

Speed:

Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...

0 / 0