腿
leg
tuǐ
What does 腿 mean?
腿 (tuǐ) is the standard noun for 'leg' — the whole limb from hip to foot, on humans and animals alike. It's also used for the legs of furniture (桌子腿 'table leg,' 椅子腿 'chair leg') and meat cuts (鸡腿 'chicken drumstick,' 猪腿 'pork leg / ham'). Chinese is more anatomically precise than English here: 腿 is the whole leg, while 大腿 is 'thigh' and 小腿 is 'lower leg / calf' — words you actually hear in daily conversation, not just medical contexts.
The hand parallel is 手 (hand) / 胳膊 (arm); don't substitute 脚 (foot) for 腿 — they're separate body parts in Chinese as in English. The measure word 条 fits because legs are long and thin; for one of a pair use 只 (一只腿 = 'one leg').
Character breakdown
leg
Memory hook: Has the 月 (flesh) radical on the left — flesh + 退 (retreat) phonetic = the leg, the body part that walks.
Measure word for 腿
Example sentences
我的腿很疼。
Wǒ de tuǐ hěn téng.
My legs hurt a lot.
spoken
她的腿很长。
Tā de tuǐ hěn cháng.
Her legs are very long.
neutral
走了一天，腿都软了。
Zǒu le yì tiān, tuǐ dōu ruǎn le.
After walking all day, my legs are wobbly.
spoken
他最喜欢吃鸡腿。
Tā zuì xǐhuan chī jītuǐ.
He likes eating chicken drumsticks the most.
neutral
Common phrases with 腿
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腿 appears in 2 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
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