Chinese Character Wiki
離

lí

leave

Original meaning: 

catch a bird

Depicts a bird (隹) being caught in a bird trap (罕). Based on the original meaning "catch a bird". The meaning later shifted to "reject", "separate", and "leave".

Components
罕 iconic component

罕  Iconic component

hǎn

  

rare

Depicts a bird trap.

隹 iconic component

隹  Iconic component

zhuī

  

bird

Evolution

離 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
離 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
離 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

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 離
Freq.
Word
Meaning

离开

to depart

离

to leave

距离

distance

离婚

to divorce

分离

to separate

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

籬 蘺

Remnant component in 1 character (1 verified)

离

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[r]aj

lje

lí

meet with, encounter

*[r]aj

lje

lí

depart from

*raj-s

ljeH

lì

reject


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 94.6020% of movies

227th most common character in movies

418th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

18

Simplified

离

Unicode

U+96E2

Shuowen

“離，離黃，倉庚也。鳴則蠶生。从隹，离聲。”


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