HSK 6 · Verbs
开拓 kāituò “to open up” in Chinese
Traditional 開拓
What 开拓 means
- to open up
- to pioneer
- to develop
- to break new ground (for agriculture)
- to open up (a new seam)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
- to develop (border regions)
- fig. to open up (new horizons)
How to say 开拓
开kāi1st tone, high and level
拓tuò4th tone, falling
开拓 in a sentence
How 开拓 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.

开kāito open
- 一one · yī
- 廾two hands · gǒng
Memory aidSimplified from 開: two hands lifting the bar of a gate 門: to open.

拓tuòto expand
- 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
- 石stone · shíSound part
扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 石 (shí) hints at the sound. Compare it with tuò.
How to write 开拓
开 4 strokes · 拓 8 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 开拓
Words with 开
开kāi · to open开车kāichē · to drive a car开始kāishǐ · to begin开学kāixué · to start a new school term打开dǎkāi · to open离开líkāi · leave开会kāihuì · to have a meeting开花kāihuā · to bloom分开fēnkāi · to separate开机kāijī · to switch on (a device)
More words: Common Verbs
FAQs
开拓 (kāituò) means “to open up” or “to pioneer”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it kāituò: kāi with a 1st tone, then tuò with a 4th 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, 开拓 is written 開拓. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kaituo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 开拓 from the suggestions. Typing kaituo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
开拓 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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.