拓 (tuò): to open up

Meanings

1 to open up
2 to expand
3 to develop (land or territory)

Characters

拓

tuò

to open up; to expand; to pioneer

Examples

HSK 6

公司计划拓展海外市场。

Gōngsī jìhuà tuòzhǎn hǎiwài shìchǎng.

The company plans to expand into overseas markets.

HSK 7-9

他们致力于拓宽视野，了解不同文化。

Tāmen zhìlìyú tuòkuān shìyě, liǎojiě bùtóng wénhuà.

They are committed to expanding their horizons and understanding different cultures.

HSK 7-9

这条路将拓宽为四车道。

Zhè tiáo lù jiāng tuòkuān wéi sì chēdào.

This road will be expanded to four lanes.

Tips

usage

拓 is often used in compounds: 拓展 (expand), 拓宽 (broaden), 拓荒 (pioneer/open up wasteland). Note: a separate reading 拓 means to make a rubbing of an inscription.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical, three-stroke contracted form of 手. Indexes 拓 in the vast hand-action family alongside 打 to hit, 拉 to pull, 推 to push. The hand here is the prying tool - pushing back, pressing out, opening new ground. The radical anchors the verbal sense rather than the rubbing-rock one.

phonetic

石 shí

stone

Right side 石 stone - historically the phonetic, with shí drifting to tuò along an attested s/t alternation. It also pulls double duty semantically: 拓 in its tà reading means to rub an inked impression off a carved stone, so the stone shape is literally what the hand is working on. Same component appears in 砍 chop, 砸 smash.