剔 (tī) is a Chinese character meaning “to scrape meat off a bone”. It is written from 易 (easy; to change) and 刂 (knife (side form)), side by side, and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “to pick out; to scrape off”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
易 + 刂
Left–right structure
Structure from: 现代字形拆分（康熙部首 刀，10 画 = 易 8 + 刂 2），经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验；不作字源主张
Memory aid
A knife (刂) makes the job easy (易): with it you pick the meat cleanly off the bone and remove what you do not want.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 剔除tī chúto remove; to eliminate; to weed out剔 = tī
- 挑剔tiāo tipicky; fussy; to nitpick剔 = tī
- 晶莹剔透jīng yíng tī tòucrystal-clear; sparkling and transparent剔 = tī
Go deeper
All readings
to pick out; to scrape off
to scrape meat off a bone; to pick out (e.g. from the teeth); to pick out and remove (something unwanted)
把肉从骨头上刮下来；从缝隙里往外挑；把不好的挑出去。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 剔除tī chúto remove; to eliminate; to weed out剔 = tī
- 挑剔tiāo tipicky; fussy; to nitpick剔 = tī
- 晶莹剔透jīng yíng tī tòucrystal-clear; sparkling and transparent剔 = tī
Easy to confuse with
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 剔 mean?
剔 (tī) means to scrape meat off a bone; to pick out (e.g. from the teeth); to pick out and remove (something unwanted).
How do you pronounce 剔?
It is pronounced tī.
What parts is 剔 made of?
易 (easy; to change) and 刂 (knife (side form)), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分（康熙部首 刀，10 画 = 易 8 + 刂 2），经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验；不作字源主张. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 剔 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 剔?
刀. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 剔?
Common ones are 剔除 and 挑剔. The reading of 剔 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.