腿 (tuǐ): leg

Measure Word

一条腿 tiáo

Meanings

1 leg

Characters

腿

tuǐ

leg

Contains 月 (flesh radical) — a body part.

Examples

我的腿很酸。

Wǒ de tuǐ hěn suān.

My legs are sore.

他的腿受伤了。

Tā de tuǐ shòushāng le.

His leg is injured.

Components

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh (body radical)

Left indexing flesh radical — looks identical to 月 (moon) but is 肉 (flesh) compressed for the left position. Signals body part throughout the lexicon: 脚 (foot), 脸 (face), 胃 (stomach), 肺 (lung). The radical alone settles the meaning frame as 'something on the body.'

phonetic

退 tuì

to retreat; step back

Right 退 supplies the sound (tuì → tuǐ, tone change) and a faint semantic kick: legs are the part of the body that retreat and advance. The walking radical 辶 inside 退 doubles the leg-imagery, so 腿 reads almost as 'the body's stepping-back-and-forth limb.'