Chinese Character Wiki
离

chī, lí

leave

Depicts using a net (𠦒) to catch prey in a forest (林). 林 also represents the sound. In simplified Chinese 离 is also used to mean "leave", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 離.

Components
林 sound,iconic component

林  Sound Iconic component

lín

  

forest

𠦒 iconic component

𠦒  Iconic component

bān

  

net for catching birds or rabbits

Depicts a net. Similar to 禽.

Evolution

离 Bronze script Late Warring States (~250 BC)

Bronze script

Late Warring States (~250 BC)
离 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
离 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
离 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

离  

chī

mythical beast (archaic)

离 (離) 

lí

leave, depart; go away; separate; to leave; to part from; to be away from; (in giving distances) from; without (sth); independent of; one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦[bā​guà], symbolizing fire; ☲

离 (離) 

Lí

surname Li

Most common words with 离
Freq.
Word
Meaning

离开

to depart

离

to leave

距离

distance

离婚

to divorce

分离

to separate

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

魑

Sound component in 10 characters (1 verified)

魑 璃 篱 漓 螭 縭 缡 蓠 褵 樆

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*r̥aj

trhje

chī

mountain demon


Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 94.6020% of movies

227th most common character in movies

418th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Traditional

離

Unicode

U+79BB

Shuowen

“离，山神獸也。从禽頭，从厹，从屮。歐陽喬說：‘离，猛獸也。’”
Sources

季旭昇《說文新證》p.954

林志強《《文源》評注》p.7

李学勤《字源》p.1268-1269

陳靖《兩周古文字編注》p.2182



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