How to Write 歹 (dǎi) — Meaning “Bad; evil; wicked”

Imagine the character looks like a skull with a missing jaw — the top horizontal line is the forehead, and the lower hook shape is the cheekbone. The dot inside can be a tear or a mark of evil, reminding you that 歹 sounds like 'die' and means bad.

The stroke order is: horizontal, horizontal with a downward-left hook, diagonal stroke (捺), and a short dot inside the hook. A common mistake is writing the hook too shallow or forgetting the dot at the end, which changes the character's balance.

歹 (dǎi) means bad or evil and is a standalone radical, while 死 (sǐ) means death and contains 歹 on the left plus 匕 on the right. Visually, 歹 has a dot inside the hook, whereas 死 has an extra component making it wider and taller.

歹 is rarely used alone today; it appears in compound words like 歹徒 (gangster) and 歹意 (malice), mostly in formal or news contexts about crime. In Chinese culture, the radical 歹 often appears in characters related to negative concepts, reflecting a traditional association with death and evil.

Common words containing 歹 include: 歹徒 (dǎi tú) — Gangster; criminal; 歹意 (dǎi yì) — Malice; evil intention; 好歹 (hǎo dǎi) — good and bad; in any case; no matter what.