The tongue and the palate are both organs of taste.
Sentence #8795349 from Tatoeba · translation adapted
How 舌头 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.
舌shétongue
千thousand · qiān
口mouth · kǒu
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 舌头
舌 6 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.
Stroke order chart for 舌头 (shétou). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
舌头 (shétou) means “tongue” or “enemy soldier captured for the purpose of extracting information”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it shétou: shé 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, 舌头 is written 舌頭. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 个 (gè). For example, one tongue is 一个舌头 (yí ge shétou).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shetou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 舌头 from the suggestions. Typing shetou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
舌头 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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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.
舌shé2nd tone, rising
头touneutral tone, light and short
