cai dao

thumb|A Caidao next to a spoon

A '''Chinese chef's knife — sometimes referred to as a Càidāo''' (, lit. "vegetable knife"), is a Chinese, rectangular-bladed, all-purpose chef's knife used to prepare a variety of meats, fish and vegetables. The popularity of this style of knife has spread with the associated cuisines. They resemble Western cleavers in appearance, but most Chinese chef's knives are relatively thin-bladed and designed for slicing, finely chopping and mincing vegetables, fish and boneless meats. The heavier gǔdāo (, lit. "bone knife") are produced and are used much like Western-type meat cleavers to prepare large sides of beef, pork and other boned meats. However, Chinese-style knives of this mass are not common in the West.