除 (chú) is a Chinese character meaning “to remove”. It is written from 阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 余 (surplus; remaining; I (literary)), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “to remove”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
阝 + 余
Left–right structure
- 阝 left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑) · fù unknown
- 余 surplus; remaining; I (literary) · yú unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+9664; modern decomposition ⿰阝余 checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (2 + 7 = 9 strokes)
Memory aid
Beside the steps (阝) lies what is left over (余) — sweep it away to remove it.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 删除shān chúto delete; to remove除 = chú
- 除夕chú xīChinese New Year's Eve除 = chú
- 剔除tī chúto remove; to eliminate; to weed out除 = chú
Go deeper
All readings
to remove
to remove; to get rid of; except; besides; to divide (math)
去掉；不计算在内；数学中的除法。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 删除shān chúto delete; to remove除 = chú
- 除夕chú xīChinese New Year's Eve除 = chú
- 剔除tī chúto remove; to eliminate; to weed out除 = chú
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 除 mean?
除 (chú) means to remove; to get rid of; except; besides; to divide (math).
How do you pronounce 除?
It is pronounced chú.
What parts is 除 made of?
阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 余 (surplus; remaining; I (literary)), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+9664; modern decomposition ⿰阝余 checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (2 + 7 = 9 strokes). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 除 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 除?
阜. 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 除?
Common ones are 删除 and 除夕. The reading of 除 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.