堵 (dǔ): to block up (a road, pipe etc), to stop up (a hole), (fig.) (of a person) choked up with anxiety or stress

堵 (dǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to block up (a road, pipe etc).” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 土 (semantic) and 者 (phonetic). It ranks #2227 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 堵 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 在 (zài, to exist), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to block up (a road, pipe etc)
  2. to stop up (a hole)
  3. (fig.) (of a person) choked up with anxiety or stress

Etymology & Origin

堵

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土者 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 堵

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
堵车verbdǔ chētraffic jam4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
堵住verbdǔ zhùto block up
堵塞verbdǔ sèto clog up
拥堵verbyōng dǔ(of traffic) to become congested
围堵verbwéi dǔto blockade
堵截verbdǔ jiéto intercept
交通堵塞jiāo tōng dǔ sèroad congestion
第四堵墙noundì sì dǔ qiángthe fourth wall (in theater, TV, film etc)
阿堵物nounē dǔ wù(literary) (euphemism) money (literally, "this thing")
七堵区qī dǔ qūQidu, a district of Keelung City 基隆市, Taiwan
堵床上dǔ chuáng shàng(coll.) to catch an adulterous couple in the act
回堵huí dǔ(Tw) (of traffic) to be jammed
堵死dǔ sǐto block (a road)
堵塞费dǔ sè fèitraffic congestion fee
堵击dǔ jīto intercept and attack (military)
阿堵pronounē dǔ(literary) (colloquial term of the Six Dynasties period 六朝) this
20
Total compounds
40
As first character
40
As last character
20
As middle character

堵 appears in 20 compound words: 40 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 20 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 堵 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

塞sāi
0.5085,327 co-occurrences
拥yōng
0.4921,902 co-occurrences
截jié
0.4501,136 co-occurrences
墙qiáng
0.423475 co-occurrences
段duàn
0.40413 co-occurrences
围wéi
0.404806 co-occurrences
撞zhuàng
0.38812 co-occurrences
住zhù
0.3851,490 co-occurrences
漏lòu
0.385182 co-occurrences
交jiāo
0.3842,080 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这座古堵已经有两千多年的历史了。

zhè zuò gǔ dǔ yǐ jīng yǒu liǎng qiān duō nián de lì shǐ le .

This ancient city wall has a history of over two thousand years.

EttodayFeb 2026

基隆捷运带动北五堵转型 智慧科技园区成大台北新门户

jī lóng jié yùn dài dòng běi wǔ dǔ zhuǎn xíng zhì huì kē jì yuán qū chéng dà tái běi xīn mén hù

Keelung MRT drives the transformation of the North Wudu Smart Technology Park into the new gateway of Taipei University

NewtalkFeb 2026

化学槽车擦撞护栏 国1五堵段回堵4公里

huà xué cáo chē cā zhuàng hù lán guó 1 wǔ dǔ duàn huí dǔ 4 gōng lǐ

The chemical tank truck collided with the guardrail and the five blocking sections of National 1 blocked 4 kilometers

中時新聞網Feb 2026

...3龙井段惊魂!驾驶分心追撞缓撞车 车流回堵2公里

. . . 3 lóng jǐng duàn jīng hún ! jià shǐ fēn xīn zhuī zhuàng huǎn zhuàng chē chē liú huí dǔ 2 gōng lǐ

... 3 Longjing section is terrifying! The driver was distracted and slowed down the collision, and the traffic flow was blocked for 2 kilometers

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

日本高龄评论家拒绝断舍离 杂物堆家中一招堵住女儿嘴

rì běn gāo líng píng lùn jiā jù jué duàn shě lí zá wù duī jiā zhōng yī zhāo dǔ zhù nǚ ér zuǐ

Japan's elderly critic refuses to break away from the clutter pile at home to block his daughter's mouth

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...连假最后一天 国道事故34件、局部路段回堵

. . . lián jiǎ zuì hòu yī tiān guó dào shì gù 3 4 jiàn , jú bù lù duàn huí dǔ

... On the last day of the holiday, there were 34 accidents on the national highway, and some road sections were blocked

Tatoeba

我被交通堵塞耽搁了。

Wǒ bèi jiāotōngdǔsè dānge le.

I was delayed by a traffic jam.

Tatoeba

市中心的交通都堵塞了。

Shìzhōngxīn de jiāotōng dōu dǔsè le.

Traffic downtown is all backed up.

Tatoeba

我们黎明时起床以避开交通堵塞。

Wǒmen límíng shí qǐchuáng yǐ bìkāi jiāotōngdǔsè.

We got up at dawn to avoid a traffic jam.

Tatoeba

每一堵墙都是一扇门。

Měi yī dǔ qiáng dōu shì yī shān mén.

Every wall is a door.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 土 (earth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 堵 (dǔ) mean in Chinese?
堵 (dǔ) primarily means "to block up (a road, pipe etc)." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2227 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 堵 and 下?
堵 (dǔ) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 堵 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 堵 have?
堵 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 堵?
The radical associated with 堵 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 堵?
堵 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 者 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土者 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 堵?
Common words with 堵 include: 堵住 (dǔ zhù, "to block up"); 堵塞 (dǔ sè, "to clog up"); 堵车 (dǔ chē, "traffic jam"); 拥堵 (yōng dǔ, "(of traffic) to become congested"); 围堵 (wéi dǔ, "to blockade"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 堵 (dǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dǔ: 赌 (to bet), 睹 (to observe). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 堵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 堵 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 堵 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.