(tuò): to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription), to expand, to push sth with the hand

(tuò) is a Chinese character meaning “to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2183 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription)
  2. to expand
  3. to push sth with the hand

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌石 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tuò zhǎnto expand
kāi tuòto break new ground (for agriculture)
kāi tuò zhěpioneer
tuò huāng zhěpioneer
tuò kuānto broaden
tuò huāngto open up land (for agriculture)
tuò pū(math.) (loanword) topology
kāi tuò xìngpioneering
tuò pū xué(math.) topology
bì huó bì tuòBHP Billiton (Anglo-Australian mining corporation)
jǐ hé tuò pū xué(math.) geometric topology
tuò zhǎn shì yěto broaden one's horizons
tuò pū kōng jiān(math.) topological space
jǐ hé tuò pū(math.) geometric topology
dài shù tuò pū(math.) algebraic topology
29
Total compounds
59
As first character
17
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 59 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 24 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.76026,136 co-occurrences
huāng
0.5309,114 co-occurrences
zhǎn
0.52345,753 co-occurrences
kuān
0.5129,756 co-occurrences
yuè
0.4575,274 co-occurrences
dòu
0.4215,274 co-occurrences
zhí
0.4184,260 co-occurrences
kāi
0.40817,910 co-occurrences
0.4051,998 co-occurrences
yuán
0.3781,470 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

kāijiāngtuòtǔHSK 7+

to expand one's territory

phrase
luòtuò bùjīHSK 7+

unconventional and uninhibited

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā tuò le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He dialed a number and made plans with a friend to grab dinner that evening.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

每日星座运势/金牛聚会展人际圈 理财转守为攻

měi rì xīng zuò yùn shì jīn niú jù huì tuò zhǎn rén jì juān lǐ cái zhuǎn shǒu wéi gōng

Daily horoscope/Taurus gathering to expand the interpersonal circle and turn financial management into offense

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...877.HK):拟1亿港元收购目标公司,展互联网医疗业务-FX168

. . . 8 7 7 . H K ) : nǐ 1 yì gǎng yuán shōu gòu mù biāo gōng sī , tuò zhǎn hù lián wǎng yī liáo yè wù F X 1 6 8

... 877.HK): It plans to acquire the target company for HK$100 million and expand the Internet medical business - FX168

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...国与Momenta深化未来出行领域合作 智能辅助驾驶功能

. . . guó yǔ M o m e n t a shēn huà wèi lái chū háng lǐng yù gě zuò tuò zhì néng fǔ zhù jià shǐ gōng néng

... China and Momenta deepen cooperation in the field of future travel to expand intelligent assisted driving functions

BastillepostFeb 2026

...理默茨即日起访华两天 表示期待探讨进一步展两国合作

. . . lǐ mò 茨 jí rì qǐ fǎng huá liǎng tiān biǎo shì qī dài tàn tǎo jìn yī bù tuò zhǎn liǎng guó gě zuò

... Limmertz visited China for two days from now and expressed his expectation to explore further expansion of cooperation between the two countries

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

鑫科去年EPS -0.08元 将展新订单

鑫 kē qù nián E P S 0 . 0 8 yuán jiāng tuò zhǎn xīn dìng dān

Xinke EPS -0.08 yuan last year will expand new orders

Tatoeba

年轻的时候你应该开你的思想。

Niánqīng de shíhou nǐ yīnggāi kāituò nǐ de sīxiǎng.

You should enrich your mind when young.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced tuò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拓 (tuò) mean in Chinese?
拓 (tuò) primarily means "to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2183 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拓 and 拉?
拓 (tuò) and 拉 (lā) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 拓 (push) vs 拉 (pull).
How many strokes does 拓 have?
拓 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 拓?
The radical associated with 拓 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拓?
拓 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 石 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌石 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拓?
Common words with 拓 include: 拓展 (tuò zhǎn, "to expand"); 开拓 (kāi tuò, "to break new ground (for agriculture)"); 开拓者 (kāi tuò zhě, "pioneer"); 拓荒者 (tuò huāng zhě, "pioneer"); 拓宽 (tuò kuān, "to broaden"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拓 (tuò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tuò: 托 (to hold up in one's hand), 拖 (to drag), 脱 (to shed), 驮 (load carried by a pack animal), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拓 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拓 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.