tao
/ˈta.ʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.49 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing.
Uncountable
noun
Synonym of circuit: various administrative divisions of imperial and early Republican China.
Obsolete; Uncountable
name
In Taoism, The Way, specifically the transcendental basis of nature and, and/or the ideal way to live one's life.
noun
Alternative form of tao (“art or skill in harmony with essential nature”).
Countable; Uncountable
name
A unisex given name from Mandarin.
name
an Austronesian ethnic group native to Orchid Island (Lanyu) of Lanyu, Taitung County, Taiwan
Example Sentences
- "The tao of Lao Tzu was a cosmic tao, inner and unwritten, a tao of Nature, while the tao of Confucius was moral and written."
- "the tao of sex... the tao of the heart... the tao of integuments..."
- "Nor is progress exclusively a Western invention. Many interpret the Tao of ancient China as a guide for those who wish to progress as they make their way forward in the world—though its conception of progress is very different from what emerged in the West."
- "When mathematicians face a question they cannot answer, they sometimes devise a less stringent question, in the hope that solving it will provide insights. This is the path that Tao took in 2004, in collaboration with Ben Green of Oxford."