The character 走 (zǒu): to walk

The Great Wall winds over green hills to the horizon, with a square watchtower and a blue cloudy sky, its paved walkway in the foreground. At the left a flat bright orange figure strides to the right in mid step, a pack on the back, one leg forward and one behind. On the same paving at the right, the character 走 in deep brown, the shape of 土 above, and below a short stem, a slant to the lower left and a long stroke flattening to the right.

Pronunciation: zǒu
Strokes: 7
Level: HSK2
Radical: 走
Made of: 土止

What it means

to walk; to go; to run; to move (of vehicle); to visit; to leave; to go away; to die (euph.); from; through; away (in compound verbs, such as 撤走[che4 zou3]); to change (shape, form, meaning)

Where its shape comes from

A running figure with its arms swinging, set above a foot: Xu Shen names both elements and glosses the word as "to hurry". The foot underneath is the one from 足, learned just before this. The meaning has moved since: in classical Chinese 走 means to run, and it is 行 xíng that means to walk, the present sense arriving a good deal later. The figure on top has been regularised until it took the shape of 土, earth, to which it is quite unrelated.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

How it used to be written

Oracle bone script 商
Clerical script 東漢
See all 13 forms

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

A way to remember it

The bottom is exactly the one from 足, learned just before: a short vertical, a small stroke to its right, then two slants. The top has the shape of 土: a short bar, a vertical, then a longer bar.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

走路 zǒu lù · HSK2 to walk; to go on foot; to leave; to depart; (informal) to clear off; to beat it; (of sb who gets fired or resigns) to leave the job; to get out
行走 xíng zǒu · HSK5 to walk
走廊 zǒu láng · HSK6 corridor; aisle; hallway; passageway; veranda
走进 zǒu jìn to enter; to step into
走出 zǒu chū to leave (a room etc); to go out through (a door etc)
走向 zǒu xiàng direction; strike (i.e. angle of inclination in geology); inclination; trend; to move towards; to head for

See the 13 HSK words built on 走, grouped by level.

Writing it

See the stroke order of 走, animated stroke by stroke.