Tao
1 Americannoun
noun
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(in philosophical Taoism) that in virtue of which all things happen or exist.
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the rational basis of human activity or conduct.
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a universal, regarded as an ideal attained to a greater or lesser degree by those embodying it.
noun
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that in virtue of which all things happen or exist
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the rational basis of human conduct
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the course of life and its relation to eternal truth
Etymology
Origin of Tao1
From Tao: literally, “human being”
Origin of Tao1
First recorded in 1730–40; from Chinese (Wade-Giles) Tao4, (pinyin) dào literally, “path, way, right way”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tao Tao climbs a tree in the training enclosure.
From Literature
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In the first two seasons, Usagi had been grappling with the death of her mountain climber father, and actress Tao Tsuchiya feels that underlying pain could be a point of a connection.
From Salon
But businesswoman Tao Baker, who has submitted plans to transfer the centre over to community ownership, believes a sale would be "short-sighted".
From BBC
When Thomas Tao was a student in New York in the 2010s, he says he rarely came across Chinese fine-dining, but Americans were very willing to pay for, say, Japanese sashimi.
From BBC
But Tao said that he was more distressed by the freezing of a $25-million grant for UCLA’s Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.