手头

• Pinyin: shǒu tóu
• Hanzi breakdown: 手 = a pictograph of a hand; 头 = a pictograph of a head (top, end — here used as a spatial suffix meaning 'at the tip of', i.e. immediately accessible)

Meaning

At hand; on one. The money, resources, or information currently available or in one's immediate possession.

Primarily refers to one's current financial situation or immediate resources. 手头紧 (short of cash, tight on money) is one of the most common colloquial expressions in Chinese. Also used more broadly for resources, work, or information currently in progress or at hand: 手头有活儿 (to have work on one's plate), 手头有资料 (to have materials at hand). Contrast: 手中 (in one's hands — more literal/physical); 目前 (currently — more neutral and situational).

Examples

1. 月底房租水电刚结清，他手头没剩多少，只好推掉周末郊游。 At the end of the month, after paying the rent and utilities, he had little money on hand left, so he had to turn down the weekend outing.
2. 主编催稿时，他手头正赶更紧急的专题报道，只能请对方改到周五。 When the editor-in-chief rushed him for the article, he was busy with a more urgent feature report, so he could only ask to move the deadline to Friday.
3. 写深度报道前，记者会先梳理手头线索和文件，再安排采访核实。 Before writing an in-depth report, a journalist will first sort through the leads and documents on hand, then plan the order of interviews and fact-checking.

Usage Guide

Context: finance, daily life, work, journalism, colloquial

Tone: colloquial

Do Say

• 理财时，手头宽裕就应存些流动储备，免得手头吃紧时借高息贷款。(For personal finance, when you have money on hand you should save some liquid reserves, so that when funds are tight you do not need high-interest loans.)
• 多任务并行时，先做手头进度最深、截止最近的工作，才不易拖垮全局。(When multiple tasks are moving forward in parallel, the basic rule is to finish the work that is furthest along and due soonest, so the whole project does not fall behind.)

Don't Say

• 手头 in highly formal written contexts such as legal documents or official reports — use 目前持有 (currently holding/possessing) or 现有 (currently available/existing); 手头 is a colloquial expression appropriate for everyday speech and informal writing, and sounds too casual for formal institutional register

Origin & History

手 (hand) + 头 (head, top, end — originally meaning the top, here extended to mean 'at the tip of one's hands' — immediately accessible)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal