督

dū
verb #5,330

Meanings

  1. 1 to supervise
  2. 2 to direct

Examples

HSK 6
Zhèngfǔ jiāqiáng le duì shìchǎng de jiāndū.
The government strengthened supervision of the market.
HSK 7-9
Lǎoshī dūcù wǒmen hǎohǎo xuéxí.
The teacher urges us to study hard.

Tips

memory
叔 (uncle) + 目 (eye): uncle watching over you.

Components

radical
目 mù
eye
Bottom 目 is the indexing eye radical, a vertical eye-frame with horizontal lines for iris and pupil. Marks 督 as an act of watching: supervision is fundamentally vision-with-authority. Same radical family: 看 (look), 眼 (eye), 睡 (sleep), 盯 (stare).
phonetic
叔 shū
uncle (here phonetic)
Top 叔 supplies the sound, shū drifting to dū through an Old Chinese velar-cluster split, the same shift seen in 督促 (urge). Pure phonetic loan; the 'uncle' meaning of 叔 contributes nothing.

Stroke Order

督 dū