驮 (tuó): load carried by a pack animal, to carry on one's back

驮 (tuó) is a Chinese character meaning “load carried by a pack animal.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 马 (semantic) and 大 (phonetic). It ranks #2911 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 驮 horse. Its radical form 马 (horse) appears in many related characters such as 马 (mǎ, horse), 骑 (qí, to ride), 验 (yàn, to test, to verify).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 马 horse6 strokesFrequency #2911马 semantic大 phonetic

Definitions

  1. load carried by a pack animal
  2. to carry on one's back

Etymology & Origin

驮

pictophonetichorse

Decomposition: ⿰马大 (layout: left-right)

Components:马semantic大phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
驮马tuó mǎpack horse
驮运路tuó yùn lùa bridle path
驮子nounduò zipack animal's load
下驮nounxià tuógeta (Japanese clogs)
驮重tuó zhòng(of a pack animal) to carry a heavy load
驮运verbtuó yùnto transport on pack animal
韦驮菩萨wéi tuó pú sàSkanda, the general or guardian Bodhisattva
驮兽tuó shòubeast of burden
驮篓tuó lǒupannier
驮畜nountuó chùpack animal
驮轿tuó jiàolitter carried by pack animal
驮筐tuó kuāngpannier
12
Total compounds
83
As first character
8
As last character
8
As middle character

驮 appears in 12 compound words: 83 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 8 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 驮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

畜chù
0.45346 co-occurrences
龟guī
0.44426 co-occurrences
灶zào
0.43518 co-occurrences
篮lán
0.40830 co-occurrences
屯tún
0.40048 co-occurrences
殿diàn
0.39686 co-occurrences
弄nòng
0.39230 co-occurrences
兽shòu
0.38522 co-occurrences
马mǎ
0.378180 co-occurrences
莲lián
0.36916 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

驮字虽然难写，但意思很有趣。

tuó zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "驮" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

载物骆驼前峰歪向左侧，后峰歪向右侧，驮着装有货物的行囊。

zài wù 骆 驼 qián fēng wāi xiàng zuǒ cè , hòu fēng wāi xiàng yòu cè , tuó zhe zhuāng yǒu huò wù de háng náng .

The front hump of the pack camel leans to the left, and the rear hump leans to the right, both bearing saddlebags filled with cargo.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

展出的酒神图驮囊陶骆驼。

zhǎn chū de jiǔ shén tú tuó náng táo 骆 驼 .

The "God of Wine" painting depicting a camel carrying a sack, on display.

Tatoeba

那多山地区还没有高速路。所有货运被驮在人的背上或在马的背上

Nà duōshāndìqū hái méiyǒu gāosùlù. suǒyǒu huòyùn bèi tuó zài rén de bèi shàng huò zài mǎ de bèi shàng

There still aren't any highways in this mountain region. All goods are transported on the backs of people and horses.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 马 (horse) component

验yàn骗piàn骑qí驾jià驶shǐ驻zhù驴lǘ驱qū腾téng驼tuó

Related Characters

马mǎ骑qí验yàn驶shǐ驾jià骂mà骗piàn驻zhù骄jiāo驭yù

Homophones — Characters pronounced tuó

托tuō脱tuō拖tuō妥tuǒ拓tuò唾tuò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 驮 (tuó) mean in Chinese?
驮 (tuó) primarily means "load carried by a pack animal." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2911 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 驮 and 前?
驮 (tuó) and 前 (qián) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 驮 (back) vs 前 (front).
How many strokes does 驮 have?
驮 is written with 6 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 驮?
The radical associated with 驮 is 马 (horse). This radical appears in many characters related to horse.
What are the components of 驮?
驮 is composed of: 马 (semantic), 大 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰马大 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 驮?
Common words with 驮 include: 驮马 (tuó mǎ, "pack horse"); 驮运路 (tuó yùn lù, "a bridle path"); 驮子 (duò zi, "pack animal's load"); 下驮 (xià tuó, "geta (Japanese clogs)"); 驮重 (tuó zhòng, "(of a pack animal) to carry a heavy load"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 驮 (tuó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tuó: 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 驮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 驮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 驮 with real-time feedback

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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.