HSK 6 · Verbs

涂抹 túmǒ “to smear” in Chinese

Traditional 塗抹

What 涂抹 means

  1. to smear
  2. to apply
  3. to doodle
  4. to paint
  5. to apply (makeup etc)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to erase
  • to obliterate

How to say 涂抹

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale涂tú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale抹mǒ3rd tone, dipping

涂抹 in a sentence

  1. 我把起酥油涂抹在鹿肉上。

    Wǒ bǎ qǐsūyóu túmǒ zài lùròu shàng.

    I spread shortening over the venison.

    Sentence #13543700 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 涂抹 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 涂 (tú) with each of its parts in a different colour
涂túto apply
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 余surplus · yúSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 余 (yú) hints at the sound. Compare it with tú.

The character 抹 (mǒ) with each of its parts in a different colour
抹mǒto smear
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 末end · mòSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 末 (mò) hints at the sound. Compare it with mǒ.

How to write 涂抹

涂 10 strokes · 抹 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 涂抹

Words with 涂

糊涂hútu · muddled

Words with 抹

抹杀mǒshā · to write off

More words: Common Verbs

调节tiáojié · to adjust挑衅tiǎoxìn · to provoke停顿tíngdùn · to pause推翻tuīfān · to overthrow脱离tuōlí · to break away from拖延tuōyán · to delay瓦解wǎjiě · to collapse挖掘wājué · to dig

FAQs

涂抹 (túmǒ) means “to smear” or “to apply”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it túmǒ: tú with a 2nd tone, then mǒ with a 3rd 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, 涂抹 is written 塗抹. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tumo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 涂抹 from the suggestions. Typing tumo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
涂抹 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.