屠 (tú): to slaughter (animals for food), to massacre

屠 (tú) is a Chinese character meaning “to slaughter (animals for food).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 尸 (semantic) and 者 (phonetic). It ranks #2123 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 屠 corpse. Its radical form 尸 (corpse) appears in many related characters such as 层 (céng, to pile on top of one another), 尽 (jǐn, to the greatest extent), 屋 (wū, (bound form) house).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to slaughter (animals for food)
  2. to massacre

Etymology & Origin

屠

pictophoneticcorpse

Decomposition: ⿸尸者 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
屠杀verbtú shāto massacre
大屠杀noundà tú shāmassacre
屠夫nountú fūbutcher
屠宰场nountú zǎi chǎngslaughterhouse
屠宰verbtú zǎito slaughter
屠刀nountú dāobutcher's knife
屠戮verbtú lùslaughter
南京大屠杀proper-nounnán jīng dà tú shāthe Nanjing Massacre (1937-38)
屠户nountú hùbutcher
屠格涅夫proper-nountú gé niè fūIvan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883), Russian novelist
屠场tú chǎngslaughterhouse
七级浮屠qī jí fú túseven floor pagoda
屠城verbtú chéngto massacre everyone in a captured city
救人一命胜造七级浮屠jiù rén yī mìng shèng zào qī jí fú túsaving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda (idiom)
放下屠刀,立地成佛fàng xià tú dāo , lì dì chéng fólay down butcher's knife, become a Buddha on the spot (idiom)
24
Total compounds
58
As first character
21
As last character
21
As middle character

屠 appears in 24 compound words: 58 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 21 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 屠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

宰zǎi
0.6242,754 co-occurrences
杀shā
0.60316,636 co-occurrences
倚yǐ
0.538790 co-occurrences
浮fú
0.4521,170 co-occurrences
肆sì
0.435388 co-occurrences
腥xīng
0.434200 co-occurrences
晓xiǎo
0.410470 co-occurrences
大dà
0.40314,118 co-occurrences
溉gài
0.399162 co-occurrences
婆pó
0.392512 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

婆罗浮屠PóluófútúHSK 7+

Borobudur

七级浮屠qī jí fú túHSK 7+

seven floor pagoda

phrase
屠毒笔墨tú dú bǐ mòHSK 7+

poisonous writing; disparaging writing; calumny

phrase
屠格涅夫Túgénièfū

a transliteration of the Russian surname Тургенев (Turgenev), Turgenev

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

屠字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

tú zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "屠" is not commonly used in everyday life.

少数派Aug 2026

另一边,一位名叫 Jae 的英都警察出现了,为的就是调查缅挝园区被屠事件。

lìng yī biān , yī wèi míng jiào J a e de yīng dōu jǐng chá chū xiàn le , wéi de jiù shì diào chá miǎn 挝 yuán qū bèi tú shì jiàn .

Meanwhile, a police officer from Yindu named Jae arrived to investigate the massacre at the Myanmar-Laos industrial park.

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

中职/张佑铭再见保送屠鹰 郭郁政优质先发未夺胜仍获MVP

zhōng zhí zhāng yòu míng zài jiàn bǎo sòng tú yīng guō yù zhèng yōu zhì xiān fā wèi duó shèng réng huò M V P

Zhongzhi/Zhang Youming Seals Victory with Walk-Off Walk Against the Eagles; Guo Yuzheng Earns MVP Despite Not Getting the Win in Quality Start

StheadlineMar 2026

南京大屠杀纪念馆去年接待1.6万港人 馆方:史料...

nán jīng dà tú shā jì niàn guǎn qù nián jiē dài 1 . 6 wàn gǎng rén guǎn fāng : shǐ liào . . .

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall welcomed 16,000 visitors from Hong Kong last year; museum officials say: Historical materials...

StheadlineMar 2026

北上注意—黑猪肉被揭4个月前屠宰 深圳山姆涉急冻肉当冰鲜出售

běi shàng zhù yì — hēi zhū ròu bèi jiē 4 gè yuè qián tú zǎi shēn 圳 shān mǔ shè jí dòng ròu dāng bīng xiān chū shòu

Beijing and Shenzhen Residents Take Note—Black Pork Found to Have Been Slaughtered Four Months Ago; Shenzhen Sam's Club Accused of Selling Frozen Meat as Fresh

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...曝光!厨余蒸煮超敷衍...疫情爆发继续送屠宰场

. . . pù guāng ! chú yú zhēng zhǔ chāo fū yǎn . . . yì qíng bào fā jì xù sòng tú zǎi chǎng

... Exposure! Cooking of kitchen waste is super perfunctory... The outbreak continues to be sent to the slaughterhouse

Tatoeba

屠夫的刀子在抽屉里

Túfū de dāozi zài chōuti lǐ

The butcher knife is in the drawer.

Tatoeba

许多自然环境保护主义者担心持续屠杀鲸鱼正推动这些动物走向灭绝。

Xǔduō zìrán huánjìng bǎohù zhǔyì zhě dānxīn chíxù túshā jīngyú zhèng tuīdòng zhèxiē dòngwù zǒuxiàng mièjué.

Many conservationists fear the continuing slaughter of whales is pushing these animals towards extinction.

Tatoeba

汤姆在网上免费为政府写宣传,但他在他的家乡被政府屠杀时哭了。

Tāngmǔ zài wǎngshàng miǎnfèi wèi zhèngfǔ xiě xuānchuán, dàn tā zài tā de jiāxiāng bèi zhèngfǔ túshā shí kū le.

Tom wrote propaganda online without pay for the government, but cried when everyone in his hometown was massacred by the government.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 尸 (corpse) component

尸 Radical Family — Characters sharing the corpse radical

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 屠 (tú) mean in Chinese?
屠 (tú) primarily means "to slaughter (animals for food)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2123 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 屠 and 都?
屠 (tú) and 都 (dōu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 尸 vs 阝 (same 者 component).
How many strokes does 屠 have?
屠 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 屠?
The radical associated with 屠 is 尸 (corpse). This radical appears in many characters related to corpse.
What are the components of 屠?
屠 is composed of: 尸 (semantic), 者 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸尸者 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 屠?
Common words with 屠 include: 屠杀 (tú shā, "to massacre"); 大屠杀 (dà tú shā, "massacre"); 屠夫 (tú fū, "butcher"); 屠宰场 (tú zǎi chǎng, "slaughterhouse"); 屠宰 (tú zǎi, "to slaughter"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
Is 屠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 屠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 屠 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.