拇 (mǔ): thumb

拇 (mǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “thumb.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 母 (phonetic). It ranks #3046 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拇 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 把 (bǎ, to hold, measure word).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thumb

Etymology & Origin

拇

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌母 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拇指nounmǔ zhǐthumb
大拇指noundà mu zhǐthumb
小拇指nounxiǎo mǔ zhǐlittle finger
二拇指nounèr mu zhǐindex finger
竖起大拇指shù qǐ dà mu zhǐto give a thumbs-up
大拇哥noundà mǔ gēthumb
拇外翻mǔ wài fānbunion
拇趾外翻mǔ zhǐ wài fānbunion
拇指甲mǔ zhǐ jiathumbnail
拇战mǔ zhànfinger-guessing game
翘拇指qiào mǔ zhǐto give a thumbs-up
拇囊炎nounmǔ náng yánbunion
拇趾nounmǔ zhǐbig toe
13
Total compounds
54
As first character
0
As last character
46
As middle character

拇 appears in 13 compound words: 54 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 46 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 拇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

指zhǐ
0.5334,232 co-occurrences
姑gū
0.463186 co-occurrences
娘niáng
0.442186 co-occurrences
竖shù
0.43642 co-occurrences
爪zhǎo
0.42478 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.39564 co-occurrences
食shí
0.380322 co-occurrences
屈qū
0.38054 co-occurrences
伸shēn
0.377132 co-occurrences
右yòu
0.370226 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好拇字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo mǔ zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhèng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "拇" correctly, you need to master the correct stroke order.

爱范儿Aug 2026

手掌大小、拇指活动范围和口袋尺寸,共同划出了一条物理红线。

shǒu zhǎng dà xiǎo , mǔ zhǐ huó dòng fàn wéi hé kǒu dài chǐ cùn , gòng tóng huá chū le yī tiáo wù lǐ hóng xiàn .

The size of a palm, the range of motion of the thumb, and pocket size together define a physical limit.

爱范儿Aug 2026

拇指操控云台转向,另一侧滑块控制变焦,两套操作互不干扰。

mǔ zhǐ cāo kòng yún tái zhuǎn xiàng , lìng yī cè huá kuài kòng zhì biàn jiāo , liǎng tào cāo zuò hù bù gān rǎo .

Use your thumb to control the pan of the gimbal, and the slider on the other side to control the zoom; the two sets of controls do not interfere with each other.

爱范儿Aug 2026

刚换上新机的人,常常还会下意识把大拇指按向那块已经空空如也的下巴区域。

gāng huàn shàng xīn jī de rén , cháng cháng hái huì xià yì shí bǎ dà mǔ zhǐ àn xiàng nà kuài yǐ jīng kōng kōng rú yě de xià bā qū yù .

People who have just switched to a new phone often still subconsciously reach with their thumb toward that now-empty area at the bottom of the screen.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

视频中的女性面带微笑,比着和平手势和大拇指,最重要的一点是,她们在自由行走。

shì pín zhōng de nǚ xìng miàn dài wēi xiào , bǐ zhe hé píng shǒu shì hé dà mǔ zhǐ , zuì chóng yāo de yī diǎn shì , tā men zài zì yóu háng zǒu .

In the video, the women are smiling, making peace signs and giving thumbs-up—and most importantly, they are walking freely.

NewtalkMar 2026

仅靠大拇指!巴基斯坦男子1分钟66下伏地挺身刷新...

jǐn kào dà mǔ zhǐ ! bā jī sī tǎn nán zǐ 1 fēn zhōng 6 6 xià fú dì tǐng shēn shuā xīn . . .

Using only his thumb! Pakistani man sets new record with 66 push-ups in one minute...

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced mǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拇 (mǔ) mean in Chinese?
拇 (mǔ) primarily means "thumb." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3046 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拇 and 每?
拇 (mǔ) and 每 (měi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 毋 (same 母 component).
How many strokes does 拇 have?
拇 is written with 8 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 拇?
The radical associated with 拇 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拇?
拇 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 母 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌母 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拇?
Common words with 拇 include: 拇指 (mǔ zhǐ, "thumb"); 大拇指 (dà mu zhǐ, "thumb"); 小拇指 (xiǎo mǔ zhǐ, "little finger"); 二拇指 (èr mu zhǐ, "index finger"); 竖起大拇指 (shù qǐ dà mu zhǐ, "to give a thumbs-up"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拇 (mǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mǔ: 姆 ((old) female tutor). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 拇 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.