塔 meaning and stroke order
Pagoda (abbr. for 塔婆[ta3 po2], a loanword from Sanskrit stūpa); tower; pylon (CL:座[zuo4]); (loanword) (pastry) tart
How to write 塔, stroke by stroke
12 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 塔
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- pagoda (abbr. for 塔婆[ta3 po2], a loanword from Sanskrit stūpa); tower; pylon (CL:座[zuo4])
- (loanword) (pastry) tart
- old variant of 塔[ta3]
How 塔 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Earth.
土 gives the meaning and 荅 hints at the sound.
Radical: 土 (soil), shared by 183 characters on this site.
How to remember 塔
塔 is earth 土 on the left, which points to something built from the ground up, plus 荅 (dá) on the right as the sound part. Picture a tall pagoda piled up from earth and bricks, rising high above the grass on top of 荅.
塔 (tǎ) means a pagoda or any tall tower, and it often appears at the end of compound words like 灯塔 (dēngtǎ, lighthouse) and 金字塔 (jīnzìtǎ, pyramid). Its measure word is 座 (zuò). Example: 山上有一座古塔。(Shān shàng yǒu yí zuò gǔ tǎ.) There is an old pagoda on the mountain.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 塔 with 搭 (dā, to build or put up), which has the hand radical 扌 instead of 土 and a first tone. Remember that a tower stands on earth 土, while you build with your hand 扌.
Common words with 塔
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
塔 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 塔
How many strokes are in 塔?
塔 is written with 12 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 塔 mean?
塔 (tǎ) means pagoda (abbr. for 塔婆[ta3 po2], a loanword from Sanskrit stūpa); tower; pylon (CL:座[zuo4]); (loanword) (pastry) tart. A common word with it is 金字塔 (jīnzìtǎ), meaning "pyramid (building or structure)".
How do you pronounce 塔?
塔 is pronounced tǎ, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 塔?
The radical of 塔 is 土, which carries the idea of "soil". Dictionaries list 塔 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 塔?
The traditional form of 塔 is 墖. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 塔 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 塔 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 塔 is part of the HSK 6 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 塔 appear in words like 塔罗牌 and 贝塔?
塔 is often used for its sound in loanwords. 塔罗牌 (tǎluópái) is tarot cards and 贝塔 (bèitǎ) is the Greek letter beta. In these words it has nothing to do with towers.
Can 塔 mean a tart, like the pastry?
Yes, 塔 is also a loanword for tart. A common example is 蛋挞 or 蛋塔 (dàntǎ), the egg tart, though 挞 (tà) is the more common spelling in many places.