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

拓 (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 扌 (semantic) and 石 (phonetic). It ranks #2183 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

拓

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌石 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拓展verbtuò zhǎnto expand
开拓verbkāi tuòto break new ground (for agriculture)
开拓者nounkāi tuò zhěpioneer
拓荒者nountuò huāng zhěpioneer
拓宽verbtuò kuānto broaden
拓荒verbtuò huāngto open up land (for agriculture)
拓扑nountuò pū(math.) (loanword) topology
开拓性kāi tuò xìngpioneering
拓扑学nountuò pū xué(math.) topology
必和必拓bì huó bì tuòBHP Billiton (Anglo-Australian mining corporation)
几何拓扑学jǐ hé tuò pū xué(math.) geometric topology
拓展视野tuò zhǎn shì yěto broaden one's horizons
拓扑空间nountuò pū kōng jiān(math.) topological space
几何拓扑jǐ hé tuò pū(math.) geometric topology
代数拓扑noundài shù tuò pū(math.) algebraic topology
29
Total compounds
59
As first character
17
As last character
24
As middle character

拓 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 拓 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

扑pū
0.7498,712 co-occurrences
哉zāi
0.72310 co-occurrences
荒huāng
0.5223,038 co-occurrences
展zhǎn
0.49915,294 co-occurrences
宽kuān
0.4823,259 co-occurrences
阅yuè
0.4501,758 co-occurrences
读dú
0.4151,758 co-occurrences
殖zhí
0.4121,420 co-occurrences
开kāi
0.4025,970 co-occurrences
磨mó
0.399666 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

开疆拓土kāijiāngtuòtǔHSK 7+

to expand one's territory

phrase
落拓不羁luòtuò bùjīHSK 7+

unconventional and uninhibited

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他拓了一个电话,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/金牛聚会拓展人际圈 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,拓展互联网医疗业务-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 拓智能辅助驾驶功能

. . . 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拓展两国合作

. . . 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 将拓展新订单

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拓你的思想。

Niánqīng de shíhou nǐ yīnggāi kāituò nǐ de sīxiǎng.

You should enrich your mind when young.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

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), 脱 (to shed), 拖 (to drag), 妥 (suitable), 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 拓 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.