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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. saliva
  2. to spit

Etymology & Origin

唾

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口垂 (layout: left-right)

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nountuò yèsaliva
唾沫nountuò mospittle
唾弃verbtuò qìto spurn
唾液腺nountuò yè xiànsalivary gland
唾骂verbtuò màto spit on and curse
唾手可得phrasetuò 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nountuò mò xīng zisputter
唾余tuò yúcrumbs from the table of one's master
拾人涕唾shí rén tì tuòto plagiarize (idiom)
唾腺tuò xiàn(anatomy) salivary gland
涕唾tì tuònasal mucus and spittle
12
Total compounds
83
As first character
17
As last character
0
As middle character

唾 appears in 12 compound words: 83 as the first character, 17 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
0.6322,038 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.543282 co-occurrences
沫mò
0.519118 co-occurrences
骂mà
0.51890 co-occurrences
泌mì
0.518162 co-occurrences
涕tì
0.50656 co-occurrences
贮zhù
0.48142 co-occurrences
壶hú
0.45846 co-occurrences
弃qì
0.454178 co-occurrences
咳ké
0.43826 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.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

但实际上,部分感染狂犬病病毒的狗在尚未出现异常表现时唾液中就已含有病毒、具有传染性。

dàn shí jì shàng , bù fēn gǎn rǎn kuáng quǎn bìng bìng dú de gǒu zài shàng wèi chū xiàn yì cháng biǎo xiàn shí tuò yè zhōng jiù yǐ hán yǒu bìng dú , jù yǒu chuán rǎn xìng .

In reality, however, some dogs infected with the rabies virus are already shedding the virus in their saliva and are contagious even before they show any abnormal symptoms.

IT之家Jul 2026

一切的开端只是一则报纸广告:新一轮淘金热来临,废墟之城遍地宝藏,唾手可得。

yī qiē de kāi duān zhī shì yī zé bào zhǐ guǎng gào : xīn yī lún táo jīn rè lái lín , fèi xū zhī chéng biàn dì bǎo zàng , tuò shǒu kě dé .

It all began with a simple newspaper ad: A new gold rush was upon us, and the city in ruins was littered with treasures, just waiting to be claimed.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

入驻“V聚场”后,五角场周边高校资源唾手可得,团队创作了大量高校题材内容。

rù zhù V jù chǎng hòu , wǔ jiǎo chǎng zhōu biān gāo jiào zī yuán tuò shǒu kě dé , tuán duì chuàng zuò le dà liàng gāo jiào tí cái nèi róng .

After moving into “V Ju Chang,” the team gained easy access to the university resources in the Wujiaochang area and created a large amount of content centered on college life.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

硝酸盐转化为一氧化氮的过程需要与唾液充分结合,狼吞虎咽会降低转化效率。

硝 suān yán zhuǎn huà wéi yī yǎng huà 氮 de guò chéng xū yāo yǔ tuò yè chōng fēn jié gě , láng tūn hǔ yān huì jiàng dī zhuǎn huà xiào lǜ .

The process by which nitrates are converted into nitric oxide requires thorough mixing with saliva; eating too quickly reduces the efficiency of this conversion.

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 . . .

Drug saliva rapid tests to be introduced on campuses in September; Ministry of Education: Student consent must be obtained first...

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced tuò

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 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 唾 (tuò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tuò: 托 (to hold up in one's hand), 脱 (to shed), 拖 (to drag), 妥 (suitable), 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

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.