荼

Mandarin · pinyin tú

Meanings

  1. thistle
  2. common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus)
  3. bitter (taste)
  4. cruel
  5. flowering grass in profusion
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Characters in this entry

荼
tú · thistle, sowthistle; bitter
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2 · tu2

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1character link30same-tone records
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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caa4 · ce4 · syu1 · tou4

Cantonese word readings for 荼. 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.

character

  1. (literary, archaic) synonym of 苦蕒 /苦荬 (kǔmǎi)
  2. (figurative) pain; suffering
  3. spikes of cogon, reed, or other grasses with long whitish hair
  4. pappus
  5. white

character

  1. a surname

character

  1. only used in 神荼 (Shēnshū)

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

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