HSK 5 · Objects

木头 mùtou “wood” in Chinese

Traditional 木頭

What 木头 means

  1. wood
  2. log
  3. timber
  4. (fig.) blockhead
  5. dolt

How to say 木头

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale木mù4th tone, falling
  • 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

木头 in a sentence

  1. 这张桌子是木头做的。

    Zhè zhāng zhuōzi shì mùtou zuò de.

    This table is made of wood.

    Sentence #1787965 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 木头容易着火。

    Mùtou róngyì zháohuǒ.

    Wood catches fire easily.

    Sentence #614591 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 白蚁吃木头。

    Báiyǐ chī mùtou.

    Termites eat wood.

    Sentence #5550130 from Tatoeba

How 木头 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 木 (mù) with each of its parts in a different colour
木mùtree
  • 十ten · shí
  • 八eight · bā
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 木头

木 4 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.

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

Words related to 木头

Words with 木

麻木mámù · numb

Words with 头

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

More words: Objects & Materials

胶水jiāoshuǐ · glue金属jīnshǔ · metal铃líng · (small) bell零件língjiàn · part盆pén · basin墙qiáng · wall圈quān · circle日用品rìyòngpǐn · articles for daily use

FAQs

木头 (mùtou) means “wood” or “log”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it mùtou: mù with a 4th 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, 木头 is written 木頭. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mutou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 木头 from the suggestions. Typing mutou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
木头 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.