彻 (chè): thorough, penetrating, to pervade

彻 (chè) is a Chinese character meaning “thorough.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (phonetic) and 切 (semantic). It ranks #1234 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 彻 cut. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 很 (hěn, very), 得 (dé, to obtain), 往 (wǎng, to go (in a direction)).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thorough
  2. penetrating
  3. to pervade

Etymology & Origin

彻

pictophoneticcut

Decomposition: ⿰彳切 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing 彻 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 彻

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
彻底adjectivechè dǐthorough5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
彻头彻尾phrasechè tóu chè wěilit. from head to tail (idiom)
彻夜adverbchè yèthe whole night
曼彻斯特proper-nounmàn chè sī tèManchester
透彻tòu chèpenetrating
贯彻verbguàn chèto implement
响彻verbxiǎng chèto resound
彻夜不眠chè yè bù miánto be sleepless all night
凯彻kǎi chèvariant of 愷撒|恺撒, Caesar (emperor)
克赖斯特彻奇proper-nounkè lài sī tè chè qíChristchurch (New Zealand city)
通天彻地tōng tiān chè dìto know all under heaven
斯彻达尔sī chè dá ěrStjørdal (city in Trøndelag, Norway)
罗彻斯特luó chè sī tèRochester
通彻verbtōng chèto understand completely
曼彻斯特编码nounmàn chè sī tè biān mǎManchester encoding
清彻qīng chèvariant of 清澈
26
Total compounds
27
As first character
38
As last character
35
As middle character

彻 appears in 26 compound words: 27 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 35 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 彻 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

斑bān
0.74950 co-occurrences
底dǐ
0.68618,889 co-occurrences
禀bǐng
0.61410 co-occurrences
贯guàn
0.5753,765 co-occurrences
根gēn
0.56667 co-occurrences
疗liáo
0.55159 co-occurrences
治zhì
0.49165 co-occurrences
妇fù
0.48232 co-occurrences
毁huǐ
0.4761,196 co-occurrences
溃kuì
0.465362 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

彻头彻尾chètóuchèwěiHSK 5+

thoroughgoing; through and through

phrase
大彻大悟dàchèdàwùHSK 7+

to come to a profound realization; to become totally enlightened; to experience a complete awakening

phrase
贯彻始终guànchèshǐzhōngHSK 6+

to follow through; to carry through to the end

phrase
曼彻斯特Mànchèsītè

Manchester (a major city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in northwestern England)

通天彻地tōng tiān chè dìHSK 5+

to know all under heaven; exceptionally talented (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了彻字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le chè zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "彻" in the dictionary.

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌症怎么治才能控制症状?彻底根除只有切除子宫可行吗

zǐ gōng xiàn jī zhèng zěn má zhì cái néng kòng zhì zhèng zhuàng ? chè de gēn chú zhī yǒu qiē chú zǐ gōng kě háng ma

How to treat adenomyosis to control symptoms? Is it possible to completely eradicate only the removal of the uterus?

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌症能彻底治愈吗?保留子宫者停药后多会复发吗

zǐ gōng xiàn jī zhèng néng chè de zhì yù ma ? bǎo liú zǐ gōng zhě tíng yào hòu duō huì fù fā ma

Can adenomyosis be completely cured? Will people with preserved uterus relapse after stopping the drug?

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

英国工党于大曼彻斯特国会补选输给绿党 失近百年票仓

yīng guó gōng dǎng yú dà 曼 chè sī tè guó huì bǔ xuǎn shū gěi lǜ dǎng shī jìn bǎi nián piào cāng

The British Labour Party lost to the Greens in the Greater Manchester parliamentary by-election and lost nearly a century of votes

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

传陆拟卖伊朗超音速反舰飞弹 “恐彻底翻转中东局势”

chuán lù nǐ mài yī lǎng chāo yīn sù fǎn jiàn fēi dàn kǒng chè de fān zhuǎn zhōng dōng jú shì

It is rumored that Lu plans to sell Iranian supersonic anti-ship missiles "may completely overturn the situation in the Middle East"

StheadlineFeb 2026

...再被入禀申请破产 懒理儿子风流事母子关系彻底决裂

. . . zài bèi rù 禀 shēn qǐng pò chǎn lǎn lǐ ér zǐ fēng liú shì mǔ zǐ guān xì chè de jué liè

... was reported to file for bankruptcy again, and the relationship between mother and son was completely broken by lazing to pay attention to his son's affairs

Tatoeba

政府应该彻底加强军队建设!

Zhèngfǔ yīnggāi chèdǐ jiāqiáng jūnduì jiànshè!

The government should strengthen their army once and for all!

Tatoeba

这真是彻底的虚伪!

Zhè zhēnshi chèdǐ de xūwěi!

This is pure hypocrisy!

Tatoeba

这个计划彻底的失败了。

Zhège jìhuà chèdǐ de shībài le.

The project was a complete failure.

Tatoeba

他的家每周彻底打扫一次。

Tā de jiā měizhōu chèdǐ dǎsǎo yīcì.

His house is cleaned thoroughly once a week.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced chè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 彻 (chè) mean in Chinese?
彻 (chè) primarily means "thorough." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1234 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 彻 have?
彻 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 彻?
The radical associated with 彻 is 彳 (step). This radical appears in many characters related to step.
What are the components of 彻?
彻 is composed of: 彳 (phonetic), 切 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰彳切 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 彻?
Common words with 彻 include: 彻底 (chè dǐ, "thorough"); 彻头彻尾 (chè tóu chè wěi, "lit. from head to tail (idiom)"); 彻夜 (chè yè, "the whole night"); 曼彻斯特 (màn chè sī tè, "Manchester"); 透彻 (tòu chè, "penetrating"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 彻 (chè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chè: 车 (vehicle), 撤 (to remove), 扯 (to pull). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 彻 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 彻 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 彻 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.