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

公司计划拓展海外市场。

Gōngsī jìhuà tuòzhǎn hǎiwài shìchǎng.

The company plans to expand into overseas markets.

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.

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 (tuò) is often used in compounds: 拓展 (expand), 拓宽 (broaden), 拓荒 (pioneer/open up wasteland). Note: a separate reading 拓 (tà) 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.