HOW TO PRONOUNCE
tao
/taʊ/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does tao mean?
noun
- The art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing.
- Alternative form of tao (“art or skill in harmony with essential nature”).
- Initialism of thyroid-associated orbitopathy.
More meanings (7)
proper noun
- Alternative letter-case form of Tao: the way of nature or way to live one's life.
- In Taoism, The Way, specifically the transcendental basis of nature and, and/or the ideal way to live one's life.
- A unisex given name from Mandarin.
- A surname from Mandarin.
- an Austronesian ethnic group native to Orchid Island (Lanyu) of Lanyu, Taitung County, Taiwan
- (historical) a historical region of Georgia (country)
noun
- (historical, obsolete) Synonym of circuit: various administrative divisions of imperial and early Republican China.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/taʊ/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
This honouring of the Tao and exalting of its operation is not the result of any ordination, but always a spontaneous tribute.
Prince Chun is the son of the Seventh Prince, the nephew of the Emperor Hsien Feng and the Empress Dowager, and grandson of the Emperor Tao Kuang.
More book examples (3)
Laotse himself, with his quaint humour, says, "If people of inferior intelligence hear of the Tao, they laugh immensely. It would not be the Tao unless they laughed at it."
In this work, which is but an outline criticism of pure reason, the philosopher Lao-tse continually identifies, under the name of TAO, universal reason and the infinite being; and all the obscurity of the book of Lao tse consists, in my opinion, of this constant identification of principles which our religious and metaphysical habits have so widely separated.
The Chinese believe that it is the Tao, or "Order of the Universe," which affords immunity from evil, and according to whether or no the birth occurred in a beneficent year, dominated by four double cyclical characters, the horoscope is "heavy" or "light."