屠 (tú) is a Chinese character meaning “to slaughter (animals for food)”. It is written from 尸 (corpse) and 者 ("the one who"; a person or thing (as a suffix)), one enclosing the other, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “to slaughter”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
尸 + 者
Enclosing structure
Structure from: 现代字形拆分，经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画数据核验（尸 0-2 共3画 + 者 3-10 共8画 = 11画）；构件归属见《说文解字》「屠：刳也。从尸，者聲」
Memory aid
A body (尸) laid out, and someone (者) standing over it with a knife — that is the butcher at work: to slaughter.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 屠杀tú shāto massacre; massacre屠 = tú
- 屠夫tú fūbutcher屠 = tú
- 屠宰tú zǎito slaughter (livestock)屠 = tú
Go deeper
All readings
to slaughter
to slaughter (animals for food); to butcher; to massacre
宰杀牲畜；也指大量残杀。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 屠杀tú shāto massacre; massacre屠 = tú
- 屠夫tú fūbutcher屠 = tú
- 屠宰tú zǎito slaughter (livestock)屠 = tú
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 屠 mean?
屠 (tú) means to slaughter (animals for food); to butcher; to massacre.
How do you pronounce 屠?
It is pronounced tú.
What parts is 屠 made of?
尸 (corpse) and 者 ("the one who"; a person or thing (as a suffix)), one enclosing the other. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分，经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画数据核验（尸 0-2 共3画 + 者 3-10 共8画 = 11画）；构件归属见《说文解字》「屠：刳也。从尸，者聲」. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 屠 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 屠?
尸. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 屠?
Common ones are 屠杀 and 屠夫. The reading of 屠 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.