兜 (dōu): pocket, bag, to wrap up or hold in a bag

兜 (dōu) is a Chinese character meaning “pocket.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 白 (structural) and 儿 (structural). It ranks #2426 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 兜 a man wearing a helmet, now meaning "pouch". Its radical form 儿 (legs) appears in many related characters such as 儿 (ér, child), 元 (yuán, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)), 先 (xiān, beforehand).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. pocket
  2. bag
  3. to wrap up or hold in a bag

Etymology & Origin

兜

ideographicA man wearing a helmet, now meaning "pouch"

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Practice writing 兜 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
兜风verbdōu fēngto catch the wind
兜圈子verbdōu quān zito encircle
兜兜noundōu douan undergarment covering chest and abdomen
兜售verbdōu shòuto hawk
裤兜nounkù dōupants pocket
衣兜nounyī dōupocket
吃不了兜着走phrasechī bu liǎo dōu zhe zǒulit. if you can't eat it all, you'll have to take it home (idiom)
马兜铃科mǎ dōu líng kēAristolochiaceae (birthwort family)
兜头dōu tóufull in the face
头兜tóu dōuhelmet
兜儿noundōu rerhua variant of 兜
兜兜转转adjectivedōu dōu zhuàn zhuàn(lit. and fig.) to go around and around
兜底verbdōu dǐto provide a safety net
围兜nounwéi dōubib
马兜铃酸nounmǎ dōu líng suānaristolochic acid
27
Total compounds
59
As first character
26
As last character
15
As middle character

兜 appears in 27 compound words: 59 as the first character, 26 as the last, and 15 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 兜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

铃líng
0.591526 co-occurrences
肚dù
0.509238 co-occurrences
帽mào
0.491390 co-occurrences
笼lóng
0.429132 co-occurrences
猪zhū
0.415134 co-occurrences
售shòu
0.410871 co-occurrences
裤kù
0.40230 co-occurrences
沼zhǎo
0.401122 co-occurrences
睡shuì
0.398140 co-occurrences
酸suān
0.372228 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解兜字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè dōu zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "兜" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

爱范儿Aug 2026

先验证,再兜底 风云 T7 这次的另一个重点是安全和耐久验证。

xiān yàn zhèng , zài dōu de fēng yún T 7 zhè cì de lìng yī gè chóng diǎn shì ān quán hé nài jiǔ yàn zhèng .

Verify First, Then Provide a Safety Net: Another key focus of the Fengyun T7 this time is safety and durability testing.

爱范儿Aug 2026

完成收纳后,也可以直接放进背包或裤兜,用起来是比较方便的。

wán chéng shōu nà hòu , yě kě yǐ zhí jiē fàng jìn bèi bāo huò kù dōu , yòng qǐ lái shì bǐ jiào fāng biàn de .

Once you've packed everything away, you can simply put it in your backpack or pants pocket—it's quite convenient to use.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

卡巴斯基称它已经通知了兜风出行,对方表示已修复相关安全问题。

kǎ bā sī jī chèn tā yǐ jīng tōng zhī le dōu fēng chū háng , duì fāng biǎo shì yǐ xiū fù xiāng guān ān quán wèn tí .

Kaspersky said it had notified Doufeng Travel, which stated that it had fixed the relevant security issues.

InvestingApr 2026

月之暗面IPO迷局:资本挤破头,骗子兜售融资额度,相关人士称“不愿为上市而上市...

yuè zhī àn miàn I P O mí jú : zī běn jǐ pò tóu , piàn zǐ dōu shòu róng zī é dù , xiāng guān rén shì chèn bù yuàn wéi shàng shì ér shàng shì . . .

The Mystery Surrounding the Dark Side of the Moon IPO: Investors Are Clamoring for Shares, Fraudsters Are Peddling Financing Quotas, and Insiders Say, "We Don’t Want to Go Public Just for the Sake of Going Public..."

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

...驾专属车险破冰,北京先行先试为行业安全“兜底”

. . . jià zhuān shǔ chē xiǎn pò bīng , běi jīng xiān háng xiān shì wéi háng yè ān quán dōu de

...Breaking New Ground in Dedicated Car Insurance: Beijing Takes the Lead in Pilot Programs to Provide a Safety Net for the Industry

Tatoeba

他带她出去兜风了。

Tā dài tā chūqù dōufēng le.

He took her out for a drive.

Tatoeba

他常常载我去兜风。

Tā chángcháng zài wǒ qù dōufēng.

He often takes me for a drive.

Tatoeba

本把他的双手伸到了他的裤兜里。

Běn bǎ tā de shuāngshǒu shēn dào le tā de kù dōu lǐ.

Ben put his hands in his pockets.

Tatoeba

去开车兜风怎样?

Qù kāichē dōufēng zěnyàng?

How about going for a drive?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dōu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 兜 (dōu) mean in Chinese?
兜 (dōu) primarily means "pocket." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2426 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 兜 and 下?
兜 (dōu) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 兜 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 兜 have?
兜 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 兜?
The radical associated with 兜 is 儿 (legs). This radical appears in many characters related to legs.
What are the components of 兜?
兜 is composed of: 白 (structural), 儿 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 兜?
Common words with 兜 include: 兜风 (dōu fēng, "to catch the wind"); 兜圈子 (dōu quān zi, "to encircle"); 兜兜 (dōu dou, "an undergarment covering chest and abdomen"); 兜售 (dōu shòu, "to hawk"); 裤兜 (kù dōu, "pants pocket"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 兜 (dōu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dōu: 斗 (dry measure for grain equal to ten 升 or one-tenth of a 石), 豆 (legume), 抖 (to tremble), 逗 (to tease (playfully)), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 兜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 兜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 兜 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.