涂

Tu2
#1,733 most
frequent character
surname Tu

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

涂 combines 氵 water with 余 yú, which gives the sound. It first named a river in Sichuan. The sense 'to smear on' was borrowed by sound, then grew to blot out and to mud or street.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

涂tú
to apply (paint etc), to smear
涂tú
variant of 途[tu2]

Homophones

徒Tu2
surname Tu

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