徒 (tú): (bound form) disciple, apprentice, believer, (derog.) wrongdoer (as in 騙徒|骗徒 "swindler" or 叛徒 "traitor" etc), (bound form) on foot, (bound form) bare, empty
徒 (tú) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) disciple.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (structural) and 走 (structural). It ranks #1059 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 徒 to walk 走 in someone's footsteps 彳. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 很 (hěn, very), 得 (dé, to obtain), 往 (wǎng, to go (in a direction)).
Definitions
- (bound form) disciple
- apprentice
- believer
- (derog.) wrongdoer (as in 騙徒|骗徒 "swindler" or 叛徒 "traitor" etc)
- (bound form) on foot
- (bound form) bare
- empty
Etymology & Origin
ideographicTo walk 走 in someone's footsteps 彳
Decomposition: ⿰彳走 (layout: left-right)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 徒 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 徒
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 叛徒noun | pàn tú | traitor |
| 信徒noun | xìn tú | believer |
| 基督徒noun | jī dū tú | Christian |
| 暴徒noun | bào tú | bandit |
| 教徒noun | jiào tú | disciple |
| 学徒noun | xué tú | apprentice |
| 异教徒noun | yì jiào tú | member of another religion |
| 天主教徒noun | tiān zhǔ jiào tú | Catholic |
| 歹徒noun | dǎi tú | evildoer |
| 徒步verb | tú bù | to be on foot |
| 门徒noun | mén tú | disciple |
| 赌徒noun | dǔ tú | gambler |
| 圣徒noun | shèng tú | saint |
| 徒劳verb | tú láo | futile |
| 匪徒noun | fěi tú | gangster |
徒 appears in 80 compound words: 29 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 18 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 徒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (17)
person who is fond of women; lady's man; womanizer; lothario; lecher; libertine
(self-deprecating) to have grown old without accomplishing anything (idiom)
person who is fond of women; lady's man; womanizer; lothario; lecher; libertine
(self-deprecating) to have grown old without accomplishing anything (idiom)
Showing 12 of 17 idioms containing 徒.
Example Sentences
这个徒字的意思与它的部首有关。
zhè gě tú zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .
The meaning of the character "徒" is related to its radical.
...光!梅圣旻替爱妻完成生前遗愿 心碎携遗照徒步环岛
. . . guāng ! méi shèng 旻 tì ài qī wán chéng shēng qián yí yuàn xīn suì xié yí zhào tú bù huán dǎo
... Light! Mei Shengmin fulfilled his last wish for his beloved wife, heartbroken, and walked around the island with his posthumous photos
...从指示领千万公款存私帐 会务员被判应执行徒刑7月
. . . cóng zhǐ shì lǐng qiān wàn gōng kuǎn cún sī zhàng huì wù yuán bèi pàn yīng zhí háng tú xíng 7 yuè
... The clerk was sentenced to 7 months in prison for receiving tens of millions of public funds from instructions to deposit them in private accounts
女生徒步失联被找到:用牛粪保温 背后真相令人心...
nǚ shēng tú bù shī lián bèi zhǎo dào : yòng niú fèn bǎo wēn bèi hòu zhēn xiāng lìng rén xīn . . .
The female student was found missing: the truth behind the cow dung insulation is heart-wrenching...
尹锡悦不服发动内乱罪一审无期徒刑判决 提出上诉
尹 xī yuè bù fú fā dòng nèi luàn zuì yī shěn wú qī tú xíng pàn jué tí chū shàng sù
Yoon Suk-yeol appealed against the first-instance life imprisonment sentence for the crime of inciting civil strife
日本大阪Brand Off遭窃! 歹徒破窗狂扫数十件贵金属奢侈品
rì běn dà 阪 B r a n d O f f zāo qiè ! dǎi tú pò chuāng kuáng sǎo shǔ shí jiàn guì jīn shǔ shē chǐ pǐn
Brand Off in Osaka, Japan was stolen! Gangsters broke windows and swept dozens of precious metal luxury goods
新教徒对圣经感到厌烦了吗?
Xīnjiàotú duì Shèngjīng gǎndào yànfán le ma?
Are Protestants tired of the Bible?
法官判了他一年有期徒刑。
Fǎguān pàn le tā yī nián yǒuqītúxíng.
The judge sentenced him to one year's imprisonment.
他新近皈依的天主教徒。
Tā xīnjìn guīyī de Tiānzhǔjiàotú.
He is a recent convert to Catholicism.
我是一个虔诚的教徒，我相信死后的生命。
Wǒ shì yī gè qiánchéng de jiàotú, wǒ xiāngxìn sǐhòu de shēngmìng.
I'm a deeply religious man and believe in life after death.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
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What are common words containing 徒?
What characters sound the same as 徒 (tú)?
Is 徒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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