堵 (dǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to block up”. It is written from 土 (earth; soil) and 者 ("the one who"; a person or thing (as a suffix)), side by side, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “to block”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
土 + 者
Left–right structure
Structure from: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (土 = strokes 0–2, 者 = strokes 3–10); radical from Unicode Unihan
Memory aid
Someone (者) piles up earth (土) until the way is blocked (堵).
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 堵车dǔ chētraffic jam; to be stuck in traffic堵 = dǔ
- 堵住dǔ zhùto block up; to plug堵 = dǔ
Go deeper
All readings
to block; to stop up
to block up; to stop up; (of traffic) to be jammed; (of feelings) stifled; wall
堵塞，阻挡；（心里）憋闷；也指墙。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 堵车dǔ chētraffic jam; to be stuck in traffic堵 = dǔ
- 堵住dǔ zhùto block up; to plug堵 = dǔ
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 堵 mean?
堵 (dǔ) means to block up; to stop up; (of traffic) to be jammed; (of feelings) stifled; wall.
How do you pronounce 堵?
It is pronounced dǔ.
What parts is 堵 made of?
土 (earth; soil) and 者 ("the one who"; a person or thing (as a suffix)), side by side. The recorded source is: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (土 = strokes 0–2, 者 = strokes 3–10); radical from Unicode Unihan. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 堵 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 堵?
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 堵?
Common ones are 堵车 and 堵住. The reading of 堵 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.