马蹄

馬蹄

mǎtí

noun #30,696

Measure Word

一只马蹄 zhī

Meanings

1 horse's hoof
2 horseshoe
3 (southern dialect) Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis)
4 horseshoe-shaped object

Characters

Examples

马蹄声在山谷里回响。

Mǎtí shēng zài shāngǔ lǐ huíxiǎng.

The sound of horse hooves echoed through the valley.

广东人喜欢用马蹄煲汤。

Guǎngdōng rén xǐhuān yòng mǎtí bāo tāng.

Cantonese people like to use water chestnuts to make soup.

工人正在给马钉马蹄铁。

Gōngrén zhèngzài gěi mǎ dīng mǎtízhǐ.

The worker is nailing horseshoes onto the horse.

Tips

culture

In Cantonese and southern Mainland cuisine, 马蹄 means water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis), so called because the shiny brown bulbs look like horse hooves. Northern speakers use 荸荠 (bíqí) for the same vegetable. Classic dim sum 马蹄糕 (mǎtígāo, water-chestnut cake) gets its name from this sense.

memory

马 (horse) + 蹄 (hoof) — direct compound. The 蹄 character itself is built from 足 (foot) + 帝 phonetic, so the hoof = "the emperor of the foot," which is a fun way to remember the radical.

Stroke Order

马 mǎ

蹄 tí