东 — east; host; landlord
- Pinyin
- dōng · Dōng
- Strokes
- 5
- HSK level
- HSK 1
- Handwriting
- recognition only
This character has more than one reading — dōng, Dōng — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 东: 5 strokes
Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. The syllabus asks you to recognise this character rather than write it by hand.
Words with 东 in the HSK syllabus: 11
Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.
- 东西dōngxithing; stuff; personHSK 1
- 东dōngeast; host; landlordHSK 3
- 东北dōngběiNortheast China; ManchuriaHSK 3
- 东方dōngfāngthe East; the Orient; two-character surname DongfangHSK 3
- 东南dōngnánsoutheastHSK 3
- 东部dōngbùthe east; eastern partHSK 4
- 房东fángdōnglandlordHSK 4
- 东奔西走dōngbēn-xīzǒuto run this way and that; to rush about busilyHSK 7–9
- 东道主dōngdàozhǔhost; official hostHSK 7–9
- 东张西望dōngzhāng-xīwàngto look in all directions; to glance aroundHSK 7–9
- 股东gǔdōngshareholder; stockholderHSK 7–9
Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.