驼 (tuó): hump or hunchbacked, camel

驼 (tuó) is a Chinese character meaning “hump or hunchbacked.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 马 (semantic) and 它 (phonetic). It ranks #2678 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 驼 horse. Its radical form 马 (horse) appears in many related characters such as 马 (mǎ, horse), 骂 (mà, to scold), 驾 (jià, to drive).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hump or hunchbacked
  2. camel

Etymology & Origin

驼

pictophonetichorse

Decomposition: ⿰马它 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
骆驼luò tuocamel,匹,頭|头)
驼背adjectivetuó bèihunchbacked
驼鹿nountuó lùelk
驼峰nountuó fēnghump of a camel
驼子tuó zihunchback
驼色tuó sèlight tan (color)
驼峰命名法nountuó fēng mìng míng fǎ(computing) CamelCase
压死骆驼的最后一根稻草yā sǐ luò tuo de zuì hòu yī gēn dào cǎothe straw that broke the camel’s back (idiom)
瘦死的骆驼比马大proverbshòu sǐ de luò tuo bǐ mǎ dàlit. even a scrawny camel is bigger than a horse (idiom)
大羊驼noundà yáng tuóllama
小羊驼nounxiǎo yáng tuó(zoology) vicuña
微驼wēi tuóstooping
单峰驼noundān fēng tuódromedary
锅驼机guō tuó jīportable steam engine
骆驼祥子luò tuo xiáng ziCamel Xiangzi, novel by Lao She 老舍
23
Total compounds
35
As first character
43
As last character
22
As middle character

驼 appears in 23 compound words: 35 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 22 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 驼 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

骆luò
0.91011 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

弯腰驼背wān yāo tuó bèi

slouch; stoop; poor posture

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

西安一唐墓出土制作精湛三彩器 三彩骆驼再现丝路商贸往来

xī ān yī táng mù chū tǔ zhì zuò jīng zhàn sān cǎi qì sān cǎi luò tuó zài xiàn sī lù shāng mào wǎng lái

Exquisitely Crafted Sancai Ware Unearthed from a Tang Dynasty Tomb in Xi'an; Sancai Camel Brings the Silk Road's Trade Exchanges to Life

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

驼铃回响处,乡音舞步起:舞剧《万里茶道》的欧亚古道回声

tuó líng huí xiǎng chǔ , xiāng yīn wǔ bù qǐ : wǔ jù wàn lǐ chá dào de ōu yà gǔ dào huí shēng

Where the Bells of the Camels Echo, Local Melodies and Dance Steps Take Flight: Echoes of the Ancient Eurasian Trade Route in the Dance Drama *The Ten-Thousand-Li Tea Road*

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

在这期间,老舍的《骆驼祥子》等六部作品被译成英文在美出版。

zài zhè qī jiān , lǎo shě de luò tuó xiáng zǐ děng liù bù zuò pǐn bèi yì chéng yīng wén zài měi chū bǎn .

During this period, six of Lao She's works, including *Camel Xiangzi*, were translated into English and published in the United States.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

中新网 记者 韩辉 摄 片中的“骆驼”意象同样收获大量关注。

zhōng xīn wǎng jì zhě hán huī shè piàn zhōng de luò tuó yì xiàng tóng yàng shōu huò dà liàng guān zhù .

Photo by Han Hui, China News Network. The image of the “camel” in the photo has also attracted a great deal of attention.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

湿热体质人群,可以选择性质偏凉的奶类,例如马奶、驴奶、驼奶。

shī rè tǐ zhì rén qún , kě yǐ xuǎn zé xìng zhì piān liáng de nǎi lèi , lì rú mǎ nǎi , lǘ nǎi , tuó nǎi .

People with a damp-heat constitution can choose dairy products with cooling properties, such as mare's milk, donkey milk, and camel milk.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 马 (horse) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 驼 (tuó) mean in Chinese?
驼 (tuó) primarily means "hump or hunchbacked." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2678 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 驼 and 蛇?
驼 (tuó) and 蛇 (shé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 马 vs 虫 (same 它 component).
How many strokes does 驼 have?
驼 is written with 8 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 驼?
The radical associated with 驼 is 马 (horse). This radical appears in many characters related to horse.
What are the components of 驼?
驼 is composed of: 马 (semantic), 它 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰马它 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 驼?
Common words with 驼 include: 骆驼 (luò tuo, "camel,匹,頭|头)"); 驼背 (tuó bèi, "hunchbacked"); 驼鹿 (tuó lù, "elk"); 驼峰 (tuó fēng, "hump of a camel"); 驼子 (tuó zi, "hunchback"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
Is 驼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 驼 and the traditional form is 駝.

Practice writing 驼 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.