Chinese word dictionary

开刀

kāi dāo · (of a surgeon) to perform an operation; (of a patient) to have an operation; to decapitate

Practice word

Word information

Simplified开刀

Traditional開刀

Pinyinkāi dāo

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

开kāi

to open; to start, to initiate, to begin

刀dāo

knife; old coin; measure

How to learn 开刀

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

开kāi

to open (transitive or intransitive); (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start; to turn on; to put in operation; to operate; to run; to boil; to write out (a prescription, check, invoice etc); (directional complement) away; off; carat (gold); abbr. for Kelvin, 開爾文|开尔文[Kai1 er3 wen2]; abbr. for 開本|开本[kai1 ben3], book format

开车kāichē

to drive a car (or train etc); (slang) to post sexual content online; to make a sexual joke

打开dǎkāi

to open; to show (a ticket); to turn on; to switch on

开始kāishǐ

to begin; beginning; to start; initial; CL:個|个[ge4]

开学kāixué

(of a student) to start school; (of a semester) to begin; (old) to found a school; the start of a new term

分开fēnkāi

to separate; to part