字Study Chinese Characters
土

tǔ soil

3 strokes

土 (tǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “soil”. It is written from 十 (ten) and 一 (one), one above the other, and takes 3 strokes.

Build the character for “soil; earth”

Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.

Start
Learn this character

Structure

十 + 一

Top–bottom structure

  • 十 ten · shí unknown
  • 一 one · yī unknown

Structure from: Unicode U+571F, Unicode radical 32, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 0–1 form 十; stroke 2 forms 一)

Memory aid

Set ten (十) above one (一): picture a marker standing over a stretch of earth to remember soil and land.

This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.

Stroke order

3 strokes

In real words

  • 土地tǔ dìland; soil土 = tǔ
  • 泥土ní tǔsoil; earth土 = tǔ
  • 土坯tǔ pīadobe brick; sun-dried mud brick土 = tǔ
  • 土豆tǔ dòupotato土 = tǔ
  • 尘土chén tǔdust; dirt土 = tǔ
  • 沃土wò tǔfertile soil; rich earth土 = tǔ
  • 土匪tǔ fěibandit; brigand土 = tǔspoken astú fěi
  • 土炕tǔ kàngearthen kang; a brick-and-earth heated bed土 = tǔ
Go deeper

All readings

tǔ main reading

soil

soil; earth; land; local or native

泥土；土地；也可表示本地的或本乡的。 — studyhanzi 编写

Words with this reading

  • 土地tǔ dìland; soil土 = tǔ
  • 泥土ní tǔsoil; earth土 = tǔ
  • 土坯tǔ pīadobe brick; sun-dried mud brick土 = tǔ
  • 土豆tǔ dòupotato土 = tǔ
  • 尘土chén tǔdust; dirt土 = tǔ
  • 沃土wò tǔfertile soil; rich earth土 = tǔ
  • 土匪tǔ fěibandit; brigand土 = tǔspoken astú fěi
  • 土炕tǔ kàngearthen kang; a brick-and-earth heated bed土 = tǔ

Other characters with these parts

十 → 丧什伞千卉华协卑

一 → 一七丁丈三万下与

Easy to confuse with

士工

Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions

Questions people ask about this character

What does 土 mean?

土 (tǔ) means soil; earth; land; local or native.

How do you pronounce 土?

It is pronounced tǔ.

What parts is 土 made of?

十 (ten) and 一 (one), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+571F, Unicode radical 32, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 0–1 form 十; stroke 2 forms 一). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.

How many strokes does 土 have?

3. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.

What is the radical of 土?

土. 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 土?

Common ones are 土地 and 泥土. The reading of 土 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.