(tǒng): to unite, system

(tǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to unite, system.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #264 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, thread. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to unite, system

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟充 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounzǒng tǒngpresident (of a country)5
xì tǒngsystem5
noun/adjectivechuán tǒngtradition5
verb/adjectivetǒng yīto unify5
verbtǒng jìstatistics5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tǒng zhìto rule (a country)
xuè tǒngblood relationship
tǒng tǒngtotally
tǒng zhì zhěruler
tǒng jì xuéstatistics
tǒng shuàicommand
zhèng tǒngorthodoxy
tǒng lǐngto lead
cāo zuò xì tǒngoperating system
tǐ tǒngdecorum
zǒng tǒng fǔpresidential palace
tǒng zhì quánsovereignty
xì tǒng xìngsystematic
hū xī xì tǒngrespiratory system
lǒng tǒnggeneral
100
Total compounds
46
As first character
43
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 46 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 11 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.718803,738 co-occurrences
zǒng
0.662401,200 co-occurrences
chuán
0.658306,049 co-occurrences
0.573194,958 co-occurrences
zhì
0.527220,194 co-occurrences
shuài
0.49414,988 co-occurrences
cāo
0.47137,608 co-occurrences
lài
0.45418 co-occurrences
chóu
0.45212,438 co-occurrences
0.45012,438 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

bùchéngtǐtǒngHSK 5+

most improper; downright outrageous

phrase
chénghétǐtǒngHSK 5+

what impropriety it is; what a scandal

phrase
hūxī xìtǒngHSK 5+

respiratory system

noun
kāifàng xìtǒngHSK 5+

open system

noun
línbā xìtǒngHSK 6+

lymphatic system

noun
miǎnyì xìtǒngHSK 6+

immune system

noun
tǒngchóujiāngùHSK 6+

to give overall consideration; to make overall planning

phrase
wěi rèn tǒng zhìHSK 6+

mandate (territory administration)

phrase
xúnhuán xìtǒngHSK 6+

circulatory system

noun
zhuān jiā xì tǒngHSK 5+

expert system

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

公司正在一各部门的管理制度,以提高效率。

Gōngsī zhèngzài tǒngyī gè bùmén de guǎnlǐ zhìdù, yǐ tígāo xiàolǜ.

The company is unifying the management systems of various departments to improve efficiency.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

新春茶叙 赖总会五院聚焦关税

xīn chūn chá xù lài zǒng tǒng huì wǔ yuàn jù jiāo guān shuì

New Year's tea narrative Lai Presidential Council Fifth Court focused on tariffs

百度新闻Feb 2026

莎拉·杜特尔特宣布参加2028年菲律宾总大选

莎 lā dù tè ěr tè xuān bù cān jiā nián 菲 lǜ bīn zǒng tǒng dà xuǎn

Sara Duterte announces her candidacy for the 2028 Philippine presidential election.

百度新闻Feb 2026

伊朗总:伊朗愿就其核工业和平性质接受任何形式核...

yī lǎng zǒng tǒng yī lǎng yuàn jiù qí hé gōng yè hé píng xìng zhì jiē shòu rèn hé xíng shì hé . . .

Iranian President: Iran is willing to accept any form of nuclear verification to demonstrate the peaceful nature of its nuclear industry.

百度新闻Feb 2026

泽连斯基称乌克兰对白俄罗斯总实施制裁

zé lián sī jī chèn wū kè lán duì bái é luó sī zǒng tǒng shí shī zhì cái

Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine has imposed sanctions on the President of Belarus.

百度新闻Feb 2026

美空军宣布新“空军一号”总专机将启用新涂装,拟采..

měi kōng jūn xuān bù xīn kōng jūn yī háo zǒng tǒng zhuān jī jiāng qǐ yòng xīn tú zhuāng , nǐ cǎi . .

The U.S. Air Force announced that the new "Air Force One" presidential aircraft will feature a new paint scheme, with plans to adopt...

Tatoeba

目前在迈阿密。

Zǒngtǒng mùqián zài Mài'āmì.

The president is presently in Miami.

Tatoeba

林肯总接受了邀请。

Línkěn zǒngtǒng jiēshòu le yāoqǐng.

President Lincoln accepted the invitation.

Tatoeba

泽伦斯基是一位主权国家的民选总

Zé lún sī jī shì yī wèi zhǔquánguójiā de mínxuǎn zǒngtǒng.

Zelenskyy is an elected president of a sovereign country.

Tatoeba

这栋楼里面有中央暖气系吗?

Zhè dòng lóu lǐmiàn yǒu zhōngyāng nuǎnqì xìtǒng ma?

Is there central heating in this building?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced tǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 统 (tǒng) mean in Chinese?
统 (tǒng) primarily means "to unite, system." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #264 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 统 have?
统 is written with 9 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 统?
The radical associated with 统 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 统?
统 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 充 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟充 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 统?
Common words with 统 include: 总统 (zǒng tǒng, "president (of a country)"); 系统 (xì tǒng, "system"); 传统 (chuán tǒng, "tradition"); 统治 (tǒng zhì, "to rule (a country)"); 血统 (xuè tǒng, "blood relationship"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 统 (tǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tǒng: 通 (through, to communicate), 同 (like), 铜 (copper), 童 (child), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 统 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 统 and the traditional form is 統.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.