tao
/daʊ/noun
tao is spelled T-A-O: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tao means “The art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tao is taos.
How many letters and syllables are in tao?
| Letters | 3: T-A-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.1 times per million words; the 15,146th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tao?
Tao appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tao?
- /daʊ/
- /taʊ/
Tao has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tao.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tao?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as tao.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: oat, toa.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tao
- taos plural
- dao
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tao mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing.
the tao of sex... the tao of the heart... the tao of integuments...
- 2
obsoleteSynonym of circuit: various administrative divisions of imperial and early Republican China.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of tao (“art or skill in harmony with essential nature”).
noun
- 1
Initialism of thyroid-associated orbitopathy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does tao come from?
From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 道 (tao⁴).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).