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塗鴉

简涂鸦 · 繁塗鴉

Mandarin · pinyin tú yā

graffiti
scrawl
poor calligraphy
to write badly
to scribble

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Characters in this entry

塗: Look up this written character
鴉: Look up this written character
涂: tú · surname; name of certain rivers
鸦: yā · crow; Corvus species (various)

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–1 · tu2 ya1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

塗鴉 · find source passages ↗ · 涂鸦 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tou4 aa1

Cantonese word readings for 塗鴉. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

(often humble) to write (characters, calligraphy) or draw (painting) in a casual, poor or unaesthetic manner; to scrawl; to scribble
to write graffiti; to graffiti; to vandalise

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack