筒 meaning and stroke order
Tube; cylinder; to encase in sth cylindrical (such as hands in sleeves etc)
How to write 筒, 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 筒
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- tube
- cylinder
- to encase in sth cylindrical (such as hands in sleeves etc)
- variant of 筒[tong3]
How 筒 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Bamboo.
⺮ gives the meaning and 同 hints at the sound.
Radical: ⺮ (bamboo), shared by 149 characters on this site.
How to remember 筒
筒 is bamboo ⺮ on top of 同 (tóng), which gives the sound. Picture a hollow section of bamboo stalk, the original tube or pipe.
筒 (tǒng) usually appears inside compound words for tube-shaped objects, such as 话筒 (huàtǒng) microphone, 手电筒 (shǒudiàntǒng) flashlight, and 针筒 (zhēntǒng) syringe. Example: 手电筒没电了。(Shǒudiàntǒng méi diàn le.) The flashlight is out of battery.
Common mistake: Learners often read 筒 as tóng because of its sound component 同, but 筒 is third tone, tǒng. It is also easy to confuse with 桶 (tǒng, bucket), which has the wood radical and means an open container, not a tube.
Common words with 筒
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
筒 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 筒
How many strokes are in 筒?
筒 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 筒 mean?
筒 (tǒng) means tube; cylinder; to encase in sth cylindrical (such as hands in sleeves etc). A common word with it is 话筒 (huàtǒng), meaning "microphone; (telephone) receiver; handset".
How do you pronounce 筒?
筒 is pronounced tǒng, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 筒?
The radical of 筒 is ⺮, which carries the idea of "bamboo". Dictionaries list 筒 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 筒?
The traditional form of 筒 is 筩. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 筒 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 筒 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 筒 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 筒 and 桶?
Both are pronounced tǒng. 筒 is a tube or cylinder, often narrow, like 笔筒 (bǐtǒng) pen holder. 桶 is a bucket or barrel, like 水桶 (shuǐtǒng) water bucket.
Can 筒 be used on its own as a word?
It is rarely used alone in everyday speech. Most of the time it appears in compounds like 话筒, 电筒, or 听筒, where it names a tube-shaped object.