削

xiāo
#1,792 most
frequent character
to peel with a knife, to pare

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

刂 knife is the picture part, and 肖 xiào supplies the sound. It first meant 'peel with a knife'; read xiāo it grew to 'cut,' and read xuē it means 'pare' or 'whittle.'

Drawn as: knife

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Same Characters, Different Readings

削xuē
to pare, to reduce, to remove

Homophones

萧xiāo
(old) Chinese mugwort
消xiāo
to diminish, to subside, to consume
销xiāo
to melt (metal), to cancel, to annul

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