捅 (tǒng): to poke, to jab, to give (sb) a nudge, to prod, to disclose, to reveal

捅 (tǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to poke.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 甬 (phonetic). It ranks #2890 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 捅 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand10 strokesFrequency #2890扌 semantic甬 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to poke
  2. to jab
  3. to give (sb) a nudge
  4. to prod
  5. to disclose
  6. to reveal

Etymology & Origin

捅

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌甬 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌semantic甬phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
捅娄子tǒng lóu zito make a mess of sth
捅楼子tǒng lóu zivariant of 捅婁子|捅娄子[tong3 lou2 zi5]
捅喽子tǒng lóu zivariant of 捅婁子|捅娄子[tong3 lou2 zi5]
捅破tǒng pòto pierce
捅马蜂窝tǒng mǎ fēng wō(fig.) to stir up a hornet's nest
5
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

捅 appears in 5 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 捅 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

刀dāo
0.5831,833 co-occurrences
狠hěn
0.44566 co-occurrences
死sǐ
0.4251,032 co-occurrences
伤shāng
0.417282 co-occurrences
背bèi
0.396378 co-occurrences
刺cì
0.391264 co-occurrences
蜂fēng
0.36354 co-occurrences
腹fù
0.35572 co-occurrences
棍gùn
0.35330 co-occurrences
穿chuān
0.346138 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

捅马蜂窝tǒng mǎfēngwōHSK 7+

to stir up a hornets' nest

verb

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他捅起袖子，开始认真地打扫房间。

tā tǒng qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .

He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.

TvbsMar 2026

东京宝可梦中心血案!他狂捅前女友后自刎双亡 有保护令也难防

dōng jīng bǎo kě mèng zhōng xīn xiě àn ! tā kuáng tǒng qián nǚ yǒu hòu zì 刎 shuāng wáng yǒu bǎo hù lìng yě nán fáng

Bloody Massacre at Tokyo Pokémon Center! Man Stabs Ex-Girlfriend Multiple Times Before Killing Himself; Restraining Order Failed to Prevent Tragedy

EttodayMar 2026

...男女摩铁内“喝酒狂欢爆口角”!26岁男遭捅死

. . . nán nǚ mó tiě nèi hē jiǔ kuáng huān bào kǒu jiǎo ! 2 6 suì nán zāo tǒng sǐ

...Couple Gets Into a Heated Argument After Drinking and Partying at a Motel! 26-Year-Old Man Stabbed to Death

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...马年容易上当...狮子投资被骗、他被熟人捅一刀

. . . mǎ nián róng yì shàng dāng . . . shī zǐ tóu zī bèi piàn , tā bèi shú rén tǒng yī dāo

... The Year of the Horse is easy to be fooled... Lion Investment was deceived, and he was stabbed by an acquaintance

Tatoeba

他不知道谁捅了他。

Tā bù zhīdào shéi tǒng le tā.

He doesn't know who stabbed him.

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

挨āi按àn扒bā拔bá把bǎ摆bǎi扳bān搬bān扮bàn拌bàn

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced tǒng

通tōng桶tǒng痛tòng同tóng铜tóng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 捅 (tǒng) mean in Chinese?
捅 (tǒng) primarily means "to poke." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2890 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 捅 and 接?
捅 (tǒng) and 接 (jiē) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 捅 (give) vs 接 (receive).
How many strokes does 捅 have?
捅 is written with 10 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 捅?
The radical associated with 捅 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 捅?
捅 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 甬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌甬 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 捅?
Common words with 捅 include: 捅娄子 (tǒng lóu zi, "to make a mess of sth"); 捅楼子 (tǒng lóu zi, "variant of 捅婁子|捅娄子[tong3 lou2 zi5]"); 捅喽子 (tǒng lóu zi, "variant of 捅婁子|捅娄子[tong3 lou2 zi5]"); 捅破 (tǒng pò, "to pierce"); 捅马蜂窝 (tǒng mǎ fēng wō, "(fig.) to stir up a hornet's nest"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 捅 (tǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tǒng: 通 (through, to communicate), 桶 (bucket), 痛 (pain), 同 (like), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 捅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 捅 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 捅 with real-time feedback

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

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.