拆 (chāi): to tear open, to tear down, to tear apart
拆 (chāi) is a Chinese character meaning “to tear open.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 斥 (phonetic). It ranks #2042 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 拆 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).
Definitions
- to tear open
- to tear down
- to tear apart
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 拆 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 拆
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 拆散verb | chāi sàn | to break up (a marriage, family etc) |
| 拆开verb | chāi kāi | to dismantle |
| 拆穿verb | chāi chuān | to expose |
| 拆毁verb | chāi huǐ | to demolish |
| 拆迁verb | chāi qiān | to demolish a building and relocate the inhabitants |
| 拆卸verb | chāi xiè | to dismantle |
| 拆线verb | chāi xiàn | to remove stitches (from a wound) |
| 拆封verb | chāi fēng | to open (sth that has been sealed) |
| 拆解verb | chāi jiě | to disassemble |
| 拆台verb | chāi tái | (theater) to dismantle the stage |
| 托里拆利 | tuō lǐ chāi lì | Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), Italian physicist, colleague of Galileo |
| 同业拆借 | tóng yè chāi jiè | call loan |
| 拆东补西 | chāi dōng bǔ xī | lit. pull down the east wall to repair the west (idiom) |
| 人艰不拆phrase | rén jiān bù chāi | life is hard enough as it is |
| 拆东墙补西墙 | chāi dōng qiáng bǔ xī qiáng | (lit.) to tear down the east wall to repair the west wall (saying) |
拆 appears in 35 compound words: 71 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 拆 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
lit. pull down the east wall to repair the west (idiom); fig. temporary expedient; Rob Peter to pay Paul
to burn one's bridges; to abandon one's benefactor upon achieving one's goal
lit. pull down the east wall to repair the west (idiom); fig. temporary expedient; Rob Peter to pay Paul
to burn one's bridges; to abandon one's benefactor upon achieving one's goal
Example Sentences
妈妈拆着孩子的手，慢慢地过马路。
mā mā chāi zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .
Mom held her child's hand as they slowly crossed the street.
珩湾科技(01523)寻求分拆Peplink纳斯达克上市,拟实物分配所...
珩 wān kē jì ( 0 1 5 2 3 ) xún qiú fēn chāi P e p l i n k nà sī dá kè shàng shì , nǐ shí wù fēn pèi suǒ . . .
Hengwan Technology (01523) seeks to spin off Peplink for listing on Nasdaq, and plans to distribute it in kind...
...发债大时代!每年狂发逾1600亿撑基建 拆解7300亿财储背后的“财技”密码
. . . fā zhài dà shí dài ! měi nián kuáng fā yú 1 6 0 0 yì chēng jī jiàn chāi jiě 7 3 0 0 yì cái chǔ bèi hòu de cái jì mì mǎ
... The era of bond issuance! Every year, more than 160 billion yuan is sent to support infrastructure and dismantle the "financial technology" code behind 730 billion treasury savings
... Google与Nvidia的晶片战攻防拆解
. . . G o o g l e yǔ N v i d i a de jīng piàn zhàn gōng fáng chāi jiě
... Google and Nvidia's chip war offensive and defensive dismantling
...成胜负手!Google与辉达的晶片战攻防拆解
. . . chéng shèng fù shǒu ! G o o g l e yǔ huī dá de jīng piàn zhàn gōng fáng chāi jiě
... Winner and loser! Google and Nvidia's chip war offensive and defensive dismantling
日本拆解废弃马达提炼稀土,冀摆脱依赖中国
rì běn chāi jiě fèi qì mǎ dá tí liàn xī tǔ , 冀 bǎi tuō yī lài zhōng guó
Japan dismantled abandoned motors to refine rare earths, hoping to get rid of dependence on China
这不就是拆了东墙补西墙吗？
Zhè bù jiùshì chāi le dōng qiáng bǔ Xīqiáng ma?
Isn't this just tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall?
他怎么敢拆我的信！
Tā zěnme gǎn chāi wǒ de xìn!
How dare he open my letters!
我们以前住的房子被拆毁了。
Wǒmen yǐqián zhù de fángzi bèi chāihuǐ le.
The house in which we lived was torn down.
他们将在两天内拆除这栋旧的建筑物。
Tāmen jiāng zài liǎng tiān nèi chāichú zhè dòng jiù de jiànzhùwù.
They will tear down the old building in two days.
Character Family
Homophones — Characters pronounced chāi
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 拆 (chāi) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 拆 and 设?
How many strokes does 拆 have?
What is the radical of 拆?
What are the components of 拆?
What are common words containing 拆?
What characters sound the same as 拆 (chāi)?
Is 拆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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