HSK 5 · Nature

石头 shítou “stone” in Chinese

Traditional 石頭

What 石头 means

  1. stone

Measure word 块 kuài · 一块石头 yí kuài shítou

How to say 石头

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale石shí2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own头touneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

石头 in a sentence

  1. 来玩石头剪刀布吧！

    Lái wán shítou jiǎndāo bù ba!

    Let’s play rock, paper, scissors!

    Sentence #13953747 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 这是什么石头？

    Zhè shì shénme shítou?

    What kind of stone is this?

    Sentence #5613672 from Tatoeba

  3. 你能举起这块石头吗？

    Nǐ néng jǔqǐ zhè kuài shítou ma?

    Can you lift this stone?

    Sentence #339496 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 石头 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 石 (shí) with each of its parts in a different colour
石shírock
  • 厂cliff · hǎn
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 头 (tóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
头tousuffix for nouns
  • ⺀ice form of 冫 · bīng
  • 大big · dàMeaning part

Memory aidSimplified from 頭, where 页 meant “head” and 豆 (dòu) gave the sound.

How to write 石头

石 5 strokes · 头 5 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

石头 (shítou) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 石头 (shítou). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 石头

Words with 石

化石huàshí · fossil石油shíyóu · oil岩石yánshí · rock钻石zuànshí · diamond

Words with 头

头tóu · head头发tóufa · hair on the head馒头mántou · steamed roll骨头gǔtou · bone木头mùtou · wood拳头quántou · fist舌头shétou · tongue口头kǒutóu · oral镜头jìngtóu · camera shot码头mǎtou · dock

More words: Nature & Environment

沙滩shātān · beach闪电shǎndiàn · lightning蛇shé · snake生长shēngzhǎng · to grow狮子shīzi · lion天空tiānkōng · sky土地tǔdì · land兔子tùzi · hare

FAQs

石头 (shítou) means “stone”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shítou: shí with a 2nd tone, then tou with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 石头 is written 石頭. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 块 (kuài). For example, one stone is 一块石头 (yí kuài shítou).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shitou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 石头 from the suggestions. Typing shitou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
石头 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.