HSK 5 · Body

骨头 gǔtou “bone” in Chinese

Traditional 骨頭

What 骨头 means

  1. bone
  2. moral character

Measure word 根 gēn or 块 kuài · 一根骨头 yì gēn gǔtou

How to say 骨头

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale骨gǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • 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

骨头 in a sentence

  1. 四处奔跑的狗找到了骨头。

    Sìchù bēnpǎo de gǒu zhǎodào le gǔtou.

    A dog that runs around finds a bone.

    Sentence #13523744 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 汤姆的手臂和手断了些骨头。

    Tāngmǔ de shǒubì hé shǒu duàn le xiē gǔtou.

    Tom broke some bones in his arm and hand.

    Sentence #778727 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 骨头 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 骨 (gǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
骨gǔbone
  • 冎bone
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròu
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 骨头

骨 9 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.

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

Words related to 骨头

Words with 骨

骨干gǔgàn · backbone

Words with 头

头tóu · head头发tóufa · hair on the head馒头mántou · steamed roll石头shítou · stone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: People, Body & Health

病毒bìngdú · virus脖子bózi · neck传染chuánrǎn · to infect打喷嚏dǎpēntì · to sneeze挂号guàhào · to register (at a hospital)过敏guòmǐn · allergic后背hòubèi · back (of the body)怀孕huáiyùn · to be pregnant

FAQs

骨头 (gǔtou) means “bone” or “moral character”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it gǔtou: gǔ with a 3rd 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, 骨头 is written 骨頭. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 根 (gēn) or 块 (kuài). For example, one bone is 一根骨头 (yì gēn gǔtou).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gutou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 骨头 from the suggestions. Typing gutou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
骨头 is an HSK 5 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.