投 (tóu): to throw, to invest

投 (tóu) is a Chinese character meaning “to throw, to invest.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 殳 (phonetic). It ranks #516 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 投 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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to throw, to invest

Etymology & Origin

投

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌殳 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 投

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
投票verbtóu piàoto vote6
投资verb/nountóu zīinvestment6
投入verb/adjective/nountóu rùto throw into5
投诉verbtóu sùto lodge a complaint6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
投降verbtóu xiángto surrender
投手nountóu shǒuthrower
投篮verbtóu lán(basketball) to shoot for the basket
投资者nountóu zī zhěinvestor
投稿verbtóu gǎoto submit articles for publication
走投无路zǒu tóu wú lùto be at an impasse (idiom)
投放verbtóu fàngto input
投资人nountóu zī réninvestor
投靠verbtóu kàoto rely on help from sb
投身verbtóu shēnto throw oneself into sth
投标verbtóu biāoto bid
投掷verbtóu zhìto throw sth a long distance
投机verbtóu jīcongenial
投保verbtóu bǎoto take out insurance
投票权nountóu piào quánsuffrage
100
Total compounds
79
As first character
9
As last character
12
As middle character

投 appears in 100 compound words: 79 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 12 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 投 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

票piào
0.580156,498 co-occurrences
资zī
0.57573,704 co-occurrences
降jiàng
0.56248,398 co-occurrences
掷zhì
0.5583,496 co-occurrences
入rù
0.51699,694 co-occurrences
奔bēn
0.4987,696 co-occurrences
稿gǎo
0.4536,582 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.43440,412 co-occurrences
靠kào
0.4269,574 co-occurrences
率lǜ
0.41619,338 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

臭味相投chòuwèixiāngtóuHSK 5+

to share common bad interests and tastes and get along; to share common interests and aspirations and get along

phrase
公民投票gōngmín tóupiàoHSK 5+

public voting; referendum; plebiscite

noun
话不投机huà bù tóu jīHSK 5+

(idiom) not on the same wavelength; unable to have a congenial conversation; to not see eye to eye

phrase
举手投足jǔshǒutóuzúHSK 5+

demeanour; the way one moves; the manner in which one carries oneself

phrase
明珠暗投míngzhū'àntóuHSK 6+

the talented are neglected; something valuable is not recognized

phrase
弃暗投明qì'àntóumíngHSK 5+

to forsake darkness and come to the light; to forsake darkness for light; to turn over a new leaf

phrase
情投意合qíng tóu yì héHSK 5+

(idiom) to have an affinity with each other; to find each other congenial

phrase
投鞭断流tóu biān duàn liúHSK 7+

arms enough to stem the stream (idiom); formidable army

phrase
投机倒把tóujī dǎobǎHSK 5+

to engage in speculation and profiteering, especially when against the law in a planned economy

phrase
投机买卖tóu jī mǎi màiHSK 5+

to engage in speculative trading

phrase
投机取巧tóujīqǔqiǎoHSK 5+

to be opportunistic

phrase
投井下石tóujǐngxiàshíHSK 6+

synonym of 落井下石 (luòjǐngxiàshí, “to kick someone when they are down”)

phrase

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing 投.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

公司计划投资五千万建设新的生产基地。

Gōngsī jìhuà tóuzī wǔqiān wàn jiànshè xīn de shēngchǎn jīdì.

The company plans to invest fifty million to build a new production base.

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节不打烊,广州交投集团中欧班列预计发运9列、货值..

chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , guǎng zhōu jiāo tóu jí tuán zhōng ōu bān liè yù jì fā yùn liè huò zhí . .

The Spring Festival is not closed, Guangzhou Jiaotou Group is expected to ship 9 trains, the value of ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

被抓现行!菲律宾海警在南海投放不明物体

bèi zhuā xiàn háng ! 菲 lǜ bīn hǎi jǐng zài nán hǎi tóu fàng bù míng wù tī

Caught in the act! Philippine Maritime Police Drop Unidentified Objects in South China Sea

百度新闻Feb 2026

...音高管谈Seedance2.0:最近团队投入最多..

. . . yīn gāo guǎn tán . zuì jìn tuán duì tóu rù zuì duō . .

Pitch Manager on Seedance 2.0: The team has been dedicating the most effort to this recently...

百度新闻Feb 2026

菲律宾海警在南海投放不明物体

菲 lǜ bīn hǎi jǐng zài nán hǎi tóu fàng bù míng wù tī

Philippine Coast Guard deploys unidentified objects in the South China Sea

百度新闻Feb 2026

菲律宾海警在南海投放不明物体被抓现行,监控画面公布

菲 lǜ bīn hǎi jǐng zài nán hǎi tóu fàng bù míng wù tī bèi zhuā xiàn háng , jiān kòng huà miàn gōng bù

Philippine Coast Guard caught red-handed deploying unidentified objects in South China Sea; surveillance footage released

Tatoeba

警方将催泪弹投掷到了建筑中。

Jǐngfāng jiāng cuīlèidàn tóuzhì dào le jiànzhù zhōng.

The cops threw tear-gas bombs into the building.

Tatoeba

圣诞节当天邮局休息,邮件将不予投递。

Shèngdànjié dāngtiān yóujú xiūxi, yóujiàn jiāng bù yú tóudì.

The post office is closed on Christmas day and mail will not be delivered.

Tatoeba

谁来为风险投资提供资金?

Shéi lái wèi fēngxiǎn tóuzī tígōng zījīn?

Who will provide capital for the venture?

Tatoeba

我们要向这个怪兽投降吗?

Wǒmen yào xiàng zhège guàishòu tóuxiáng ma?

Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced tóu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 投 (tóu) mean in Chinese?
投 (tóu) primarily means "to throw, to invest." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #516 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 投 and 没?
投 (tóu) and 没 (méi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 氵 (same 殳 component).
How many strokes does 投 have?
投 is written with 7 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 投?
The radical associated with 投 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 投?
投 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 殳 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌殳 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 投?
Common words with 投 include: 投票 (tóu piào, "to vote"); 投资 (tóu zī, "investment"); 投入 (tóu rù, "to throw into"); 投降 (tóu xiáng, "to surrender"); 投诉 (tóu sù, "to lodge a complaint"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 投 (tóu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tóu: 头 (head), 透 (penetrate, thorough), 偷 (to steal). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 投 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 投 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 投 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.