吐 meaning in English

tǔ

to spit; to send out (silk from a silkworm, bolls from cotton flowers etc)

HSK 5verb6 strokes

Meaning of 吐

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

tǔ

to spit
to send out (silk from a silkworm, bolls from cotton flowers etc)
to say
to pour out (one's grievances)

tù

to vomit
to throw up

How to use 吐

Read it tǔ when you spit or let something out on purpose, as in 吐痰 (tǔ tán, to spit phlegm) or 吐露 (tǔlù, to disclose). Read it tù when you vomit and cannot control it, as in 呕吐 (ǒutù). Example: 他喝多了，吐了一地。(Tā hē duō le, tù le yí dì.) He drank too much and threw up all over the floor.

吐 is made of 口 (mouth) and 土 (earth, also giving the sound tǔ). Picture a mouth spitting something out onto the ground.

Common mistake: Learners often use one tone for every meaning. Spitting out a seed is tǔ (third tone), but vomiting is tù (fourth tone), so 想吐 (xiǎng tù) means you feel sick. Also do not confuse 吐 with 叶 (yè, leaf), which has 十 instead of 土 beside the mouth.

吐 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

我wǒ昨zuó晚wǎn吐tǔ了le。

Last night I puked.

汤tāng姆mǔ吐tǔ了le血xuè。

Tom vomited blood.

我wǒ刚gāng才cái吐tǔ了le。

I just threw up.

汤tāng姆mǔ往wǎng他tā的de吐tǔ司sī上shàng放fàng了le许xǔ多duō蜂fēng蜜mì。

Tom put a lot of honey on his toast.

你nǐ想xiǎng让ràng我wǒ在zài你nǐ的de吐tǔ司sī上shàng涂tú黄huáng油yóu吗ma？

Would you like me to butter your toast?

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

吐 tǔ · to spit · 6 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 吐.

呕吐	ǒutù	to vomit
吐司	tǔsī	sliced bread (loanword from "toast")
吐口	tǔkǒu	to spit; fig. to spit out (a request, an agreement etc)
呕吐物	ǒutùwù	vomit
吐露	tǔlù	to tell; to disclose
吐气	tǔqì	to exhale; to breathe out; (fig.) to let out pent-up feelings; to vent suppressed emotions
吐痰	tǔtán	to spit; to expectorate
吐血	tùxiě	to cough up blood; (coll.) (used figuratively to indicate an extreme degree of anger or fr

Questions about 吐

What does 吐 mean?

吐 (tǔ) means "to spit; to send out (silk from a silkworm, bolls from cotton flowers etc)" and is used as a verb.

How do you write 吐?

吐 is made of 1 character: 吐 (6 strokes). That is 6 strokes in total.

Is 吐 an HSK word?

Yes. 吐 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

Why does 吐司 mean toast or sliced bread?

吐司 (tǔsī) is a sound loanword from English "toast." The characters were chosen for their sound, not their meaning, so it has nothing to do with spitting.

How do I say I feel like throwing up in Chinese?

Say 我想吐 (wǒ xiǎng tù) or 我有点儿恶心 (wǒ yǒudiǎnr ěxin). Remember to use the fourth tone tù here.