拓 (tuò) is a Chinese character meaning “to open up”. It is written from 扌 (hand (radical form)) and 石 (stone; rock), side by side, and takes 8 strokes. It has a second reading, tà, which turns up in 拓片 — here the two readings are two separate things to learn, not one card with two answers.
Build the character for “to open up”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
扌 + 石
Left–right structure
Structure from: Unicode U+62D3 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (8 strokes = 扌 3 + 石 5)
Memory aid
A hand (扌) shoving a rock (石) out of the way — that is how you open up new ground.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 开拓kāi tuòto open up; to break new ground; to pioneer拓 = tuò
Go deeper
All readings
to open up
to open up; to break new ground; to expand (territory, markets, horizons)
开辟；扩展。多指开发新的疆土、市场或领域。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 开拓kāi tuòto open up; to break new ground; to pioneer拓 = tuò
to make a rubbing
to make a rubbing of an inscription carved in stone or bronze
把碑刻、铜器上的文字或图案用纸墨捶印下来。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 拓片tà piàna rubbing (taken from a stone or bronze inscription)拓 = tà
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 拓 mean?
拓 (tuò) means to open up; to break new ground; to expand (territory, markets, horizons).
How do you pronounce 拓?
Its main reading is tuò. It also has a second reading, tà, which only shows up in certain words such as 拓片 — so the word tells you the reading, not the character on its own.
Why is 拓 sometimes pronounced tà?
Because it is a multi-reading character: each reading carries a different sense, and the word decides which one applies. In 拓片 it is read tà.
What parts is 拓 made of?
扌 (hand (radical form)) and 石 (stone; rock), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+62D3 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (8 strokes = 扌 3 + 石 5). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 拓 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 拓?
手. 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 拓?
Common ones are 开拓. The reading of 拓 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.