The Chinese character 土
And its meaning component form
土
tǔ
- earth
- dust
- clay
- local
土 is both a character and a character component
土 can be used as a meaning component in a Chinese character. You’ll find 土 in characters and words related directly or indirectly to the earth, the ground or related to localization.
These characters all contain 土 and have a direct link with the earth, the ground, places and localization:
The character component 土 can also be found in words that aren’t directly related to earth.
The meaning component 土 can be found in Chinese characters and words that are related to earth, which makes sense. You can also find the meaning component earth in characters that are less directly related to earth and places, either because their meaning has evolved over time, or because it used to involve earth before and no longer does.
Chinese characters
indirectly
related to earth
You can also find the character component 土 used in other words like:
王 wáng: king; monarch ;grand
周 zhōu: week; weekly
塔 tǎ: pagoda; tower
You’ll also find the meaning component 土 for earth in many other Chinese characters. Browse the full list here.
All 80,000+ Chinese characters share the same character components. Chinese character components are therefore essential for Chinese learners: they are the building blocks of Chinese. Chinese character components help tremendously with understanding a character: they provide information on its meaning or on its pronunciation. In short, knowing character components will help you analyse, learn and remember each Chinese character much better.
Join us on Ninchanese as we teach you everything about the Chinese character components you need to know, little by little.