(tuō): to shed, to take off, to escape

(tuō) is a Chinese character meaning “to shed.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #943 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to shed
  2. to take off
  3. to escape

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼兑 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbbǎi tuōto break away from6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
táo tuōto run away
tuō líto separate oneself from
jiě tuōto untie
tuō shēnto get away
tuō guāngto strip naked
tuō shuǐto dry out
zhèng tuōto throw off
kāi tuōto exculpate
tuō luòto drop off
pǐn tuōpint (approx. 0.47 liter) (loanword)
tuō zhīto remove fat
tuō táoto run away
tuō jiùdislocation (of a joint)
tuō máoto lose hair or feathers
tuō shǒu(not of regular commerce) to sell or dispose of (goods etc)
100
Total compounds
77
As first character
20
As last character
3
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 77 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 3 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.

bǎi
0.71018,670 co-occurrences
0.62950,100 co-occurrences
yǐng
0.5634,006 co-occurrences
táo
0.56221,486 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.5591,584 co-occurrences
pín
0.5556,072 co-occurrences
0.5463,330 co-occurrences
jiǎo
0.542648 co-occurrences
gōu
0.4901,575 co-occurrences
0.479816 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

齿fā tuō kǒu chǐHSK 5+

diction; enunciation

phrase
línzhèntuōtáoHSK 6+

to irresponsibly flee in the face of danger

phrase
tuōtāihuàngǔHSK 7+

to completely reform oneself

phrase
tuōyǎng hétángHSK 6+

deoxyribose; semen

noun
tuōyǐng'érchūHSK 6+

to be revealed; to come to the fore; to rise above others

phrase
jīnchántuōqiàoHSK 7+

to be able to escape from a (normally sticky) situation without other pertinent parties noticing it

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

进屋请鞋,保持室内清洁。

Jìn wū qǐng tuō xié, bǎochí shìnèi qīngjié.

Please take off your shoes when entering; keep the interior clean.

NewsFeb 2026

王传一挑战相声口秀 与朱德刚搭档登台倒数

wáng chuán yī tiāo zhàn xiāng shēng tuō kǒu xiù yǔ zhū dé gāng dā dàng dēng tái dǎo shǔ

Wang Chuanyi challenged the cross talk show and partnered with Zhu Degang on stage to count down

NewsFeb 2026

为何黄国昌口“加入李四川”?他酸呛:从头到尾只想到...

wéi hé huáng guó chāng tuō kǒu jiā rù lǐ sì chuān ? tā suān qiàng cóng tóu dào wěi zhī xiǎng dào . . .

Why did Huang Guochang blurt out "join Li Sichuan"? He choked sourly: From beginning to end, I only thought...

NewsFeb 2026

汪小菲过年带子逛饶河夜市 口“台湾”赶紧加“中国”

wāng xiǎo 菲 guò nián dài zǐ guàng ráo hé yè shì tuō kǒu tái wān gǎn jǐn jiā zhōng guó

Wang Xiaofei took his son to Raohe Night Market during the Lunar New Year and blurted out "Taiwan," quickly adding "China."

NewsFeb 2026

上水粉锦公路3狗疑被虐待 1狗尾巴几乎甩

shàng shuǐ fěn jǐn gōng lù gǒu yí bèi nüè dài gǒu wěi bā jī hū shuǎi tuō

Three dogs suspected of abuse on Shui Po Kam Road; one dog's tail nearly torn off

NewsFeb 2026

童言无忌威力强!萌娃拜年口“祝爷爷奶奶早生贵子” 全网笑翻

tóng yán wú jì wēi lì qiáng ! méng wá bài nián tuō kǒu zhù yé yé nǎi nǎi zǎo shēng guì zǐ quán wǎng xiào fān

Children's words pack a punch! Adorable toddler's New Year's wish: "May Grandpa and Grandma have a baby soon!" Leaves the entire internet in stitches.

Tatoeba

阿尔及利亚需要摆官僚主义。

ā'ěrjílìyà xūyào bǎituō guānliáozhǔyì.

Algeria needs to get rid of its bureaucracy.

Tatoeba

汤姆和玛丽离了危险。

Tāngmǔ hé Mǎlì tuōlí le wēixiǎn.

Tom and Mary are out of danger.

Tatoeba

他让人们摆了奴役。

Tā ràng rénmen bǎituō le núyì.

He liberated the people from bondage.

Tatoeba

死是唯一的解吗?

Sǐ shì wéiyī de jiětuō ma?

Is death the only release?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced tuō

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 脱 (tuō) mean in Chinese?
脱 (tuō) primarily means "to shed." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #943 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 脱 and 说?
脱 (tuō) and 说 (shuō) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 讠 (same 兑 component).
How many strokes does 脱 have?
脱 is written with 13 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 脱?
The radical associated with 脱 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 脱?
脱 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 兑 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼兑 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 脱?
Common words with 脱 include: 摆脱 (bǎi tuō, "to break away from"); 逃脱 (táo tuō, "to run away"); 脱离 (tuō lí, "to separate oneself from"); 解脱 (jiě tuō, "to untie"); 脱身 (tuō shēn, "to get away"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 脱 (tuō)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tuō: 拓 (to make a rubbing (e.g. of an inscription)), 托 (to hold up in one's hand), 拖 (to drag), 驮 (load carried by a pack animal), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 脱 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 脱 and the traditional form is 脫.

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.