唾 (tuò): saliva, to spit

唾 (tuò) is a Chinese character meaning “saliva.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 垂 (phonetic). It ranks #2768 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 唾 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 口 mouth11 strokesFrequency #2768口 semantic垂 phonetic

Definitions

  1. saliva
  2. to spit

Etymology & Origin

唾

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口垂 (layout: left-right)

Components:口semantic垂phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
唾液tuò yèsaliva
唾沫tuò mospittle
唾弃tuò qìto spurn
唾液腺tuò yè xiànsalivary gland
唾骂tuò màto spit on and curse
唾手可得tuò shǒu kě déeasily obtained
唾面自干tuò miàn zì gānto be spat on in the face and let it dry by itself, not wiping it off (idiom)
唾沫星子tuò mò xīng zisputter
唾余tuò yúcrumbs from the table of one's master
拾人涕唾shí rén tì tuòto plagiarize (idiom)
涕唾tì tuònasal mucus and spittle
11
Total compounds
82
As first character
18
As last character
0
As middle character

唾 appears in 11 compound words: 82 as the first character, 18 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 唾 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

液yè
0.6616,096 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.551846 co-occurrences
沫mò
0.527354 co-occurrences
骂mà
0.526270 co-occurrences
泌mì
0.526486 co-occurrences
涕tì
0.513168 co-occurrences
贮zhù
0.488126 co-occurrences
壶hú
0.465138 co-occurrences
弃qì
0.461534 co-occurrences
咳hāi
0.44478 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

拾人涕唾shí rén tì tuòHSK 7+

to plagiarize (idiom)

phrase
唾沫星子tuòmo xīngziHSK 7+

spray of saliva; spittle

noun
唾手可得tuòshǒukědéHSK 7+

extremely easy to obtain; at one's fingertips

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 唾.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们唾渴了，纷纷跑到饮水机前接水。

hái zǐ men tuò kě le , fēn fēn pǎo dào yǐn shuǐ jī qián jiē shuǐ .

The children were parched and rushed to the water cooler to fill their cups.

EttodayApr 2026

毒品唾液快筛9月引入校园 教育部:需先取得学生...

dú pǐn tuò yè kuài shāi 9 yuè yǐn rù jiào yuán jiào yù bù : xū xiān qǔ dé xué shēng . . .

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

啊a哎āi哀āi唉āi叭bā吧ba哺bǔ嘈cáo唱chàng嘲cháo

Related Characters

口kǒu叫jiào右yòu号hào吃chī同tóng名míng后hòu吗ma吧ba

Homophones — Characters pronounced tuò

拓tuò托tuō拖tuō脱tuō驮tuó妥tuǒ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 唾 (tuò) mean in Chinese?
唾 (tuò) primarily means "saliva." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2768 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 唾 and 睡?
唾 (tuò) and 睡 (shuì) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 目 (same 垂 component).
How many strokes does 唾 have?
唾 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 唾?
The radical associated with 唾 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 唾?
唾 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 垂 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口垂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 唾?
Common words with 唾 include: 唾液 (tuò yè, "saliva"); 唾沫 (tuò mo, "spittle"); 唾弃 (tuò qì, "to spurn"); 唾液腺 (tuò yè xiàn, "salivary gland"); 唾骂 (tuò mà, "to spit on and curse"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 唾 (tuò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tuò: 拓 (to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription)), 托 (to hold up in one's hand), 拖 (to drag), 脱 (to shed), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 唾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 唾 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 唾 with real-time feedback

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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.