(dòng) - hole, cave, cavity in Mandarin
dòngTraditional: 洞
Translation
hole, cave, cavity
Word origin
A phono-semantic character with 氵 (water) as the meaning element and 同 (tóng) as the sound element; it first meant rushing water, then a hollow washed out by it.
- Origin
- phonetic
- Root
- 氵 (water) + 同 (tóng, phonetic)
Stroke order
洞
Examples
墙洞。
There is a small hole in the wall.
袜洞。
There is a hole in my sock.
钻洞。
The mouse went down its hole.
深洞。
There is a very deep cave up the mountain.
冰挖洞。
They cut a hole in the ice.
洞 (dòng) covers any hole or hollow: a hole in a wall, a hole in a sock, a mouse hole, a cave in a hillside. The measure word is 个 (gè), and it very often takes 里 (lǐ) when you talk about being inside one: 洞里 (dòng lǐ), in the hole.
Two compounds are worth having straight away. 山洞 (shān dòng) is a cave, and 洞口 (dòng kǒu) is the mouth of a cave or the opening of a hole. The verb for making one is usually 挖 (wā), to dig, or 打 (dǎ), which in this context means to bore or knock through.
The English speaker's trap is the figurative senses. A hole in an argument or a plan is a 漏洞 (lòu dòng), a leak-hole, not a plain 洞 (dòng). And a hole in the sense of an unpleasant place to live has no equivalent here at all; that meaning does not carry across.
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洞: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "洞" (hole, cave, cavity): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 45.