依托

• Pinyin: yī tuō
• Hanzi breakdown: 依 = 亻 + 衣 (person + clothing — a person wrapped in clothing, suggesting closeness and reliance); 托 = 扌 + 乇 (hand + phonetic — hand from below supporting an object)

Meaning

To rely on; to use as a base or foundation. To build upon or leverage something as a supporting structure or resource.

More formal than 依靠 or 依赖. Often appears in academic, policy, and project planning contexts. Implies a deliberate, institutional reliance: 依托高校资源、依托现有平台. It conveys the sense of using something as a platform or substrate to enable further development.

Examples

1. 该研究院依托顶尖高校的学术资源，建立了一套覆盖基础研究到成果转化的完整创新体系。 Relying on the academic resources of top universities, the institute has built a complete innovation system that spans basic research through to commercialization.
2. 这条精品旅游线路依托当地丰富的自然景观与深厚的历史文化底蕴，成功吸引了大量高端游客。 This boutique travel route builds on the area’s rich natural scenery and deep historical and cultural heritage, successfully attracting large numbers of high-end tourists.
3. 公司新业务的快速扩张依托于其在华东地区多年积累的稳定客户网络与完善的物流配送体系。 The company’s rapid expansion into new business areas depends on its long-established customer network in East China and a well-developed logistics and delivery system.

Usage Guide

Context: academia, policy, business, project planning

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 这项国家重点工程依托长三角地区成熟的产业集群，整合了数十家龙头企业的技术优势，形成了具有国际竞争力的协同创新合力。(This key national project, leveraging the mature industrial clusters of the Yangtze River Delta region, has integrated the technological strengths of dozens of leading enterprises to form a synergistic innovation force with international competitiveness.)
• 新兴数字经济平台依托海量用户行为数据，通过精准算法不断优化推荐机制，从而实现了商业变现效率的持续提升。(Emerging digital economy platforms, building on massive user behaviour data, continuously optimise their recommendation algorithms through precision modelling, thereby achieving sustained improvement in commercial monetisation efficiency.)

Don't Say

• 我依托你才做到 — 依托 collocates with institutions, resources, and platforms, not people in casual speech; for personal reliance, use 靠你的帮助 or 依靠你; mixing 依托 with interpersonal contexts sounds bureaucratic and unnatural

Origin & History

依 (to lean on/rely on) + 托 (to support from below/to entrust) — together conveying the idea of resting upon a supporting structure

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Professional