Dao means way or path. The Daodejing opens by saying that the Dao that can be spoken is not the constant Dao: it is nameless, the mother of the ten thousand things, empty yet inexhaustible. Confucians used the word for the way of the sages and of right conduct. Translators have compared it with the Logos.
Dao
The Way: in Daoism, the nameless source and pattern of all things; in Confucianism, the right way of life.
Also: Tao, the Way