(chù): to touch, to make contact with sth, to stir up sb's emotions

(chù) is a Chinese character meaning “to touch.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1202 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, horn. Its radical form (horn) appears in many related characters such as (jiǎo, angle), (jiě, to divide).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to touch
  2. to make contact with sth
  3. to stir up sb's emotions

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichorn

Decomposition: ⿰角虫 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbjiē chùto touch5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chù mōto touch
chù dòngto touch
chù fāto trigger
chù fànto violate
chù shǒutentacle
chù jíto touch (physically, one's feelings etc)
yī chù jí fācould happen at any moment
gǎn chùone's thoughts and feelings
chù jiǎoantenna
dǐ chùto conflict
chù diànto get an electric shock
chù juésense of touch
chù fā qìflip-flop (electronics)
chù nùto anger sb
chù jiāo(of a ship) to strike a reef
75
Total compounds
69
As first character
15
As last character
16
As middle character

appears in 75 compound words: 69 as the first character, 15 as the last, and 16 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.6166,489 co-occurrences
jiē
0.60798,520 co-occurrences
pèng
0.4792,718 co-occurrences
qiē
0.4749,972 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.4481,560 co-occurrences
bǐng
0.4433,228 co-occurrences
0.442960 co-occurrences
0.44110,950 co-occurrences
0.4241,764 co-occurrences
wǎng
0.4186,348 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

chùjǐngshāngqíngHSK 5+

to feel sorrow upon seeing a scene

phrase
chùjǐngshēngqíngHSK 5+

be moved by what one sees; memories revive at the sight of familiar places; the scene brings back memories

phrase
chùlèipángtōngHSK 5+

comprehend by analogy

phrase
chùmùjīngxīnHSK 5+

frightening; bloodcurdling; shocking; ghastly

phrase
chù mù shāng xīnHSK 5+

distressing sight (idiom)

phrase
chùshǒukějíHSK 5+

within reach

phrase
yīchùjífāHSK 5+

could break out or flare up at any time (of a situation); on the verge of crisis; in a tense and volatile situation

phrase
yīchùjíkuìHSK 7+

to collapse on the first encounter (with enemy forces)

phrase

Showing 8 of 10 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

不要摸展品,以免损坏文物。

Bùyào chùmō zhǎnpǐn, yǐmiǎn sǔnhuài wénwù.

Do not touch the exhibits to avoid damaging the cultural relics.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便完甩一下后要不要洗手?接生殖器后必须清洁吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià hòu yāo bù yāo xǐ shǒu ? jiē chù shēng zhí qì hòu bì xū qīng jié ma

Should boys wash their hands after urinating? Is it mandatory to clean the genitals after touching them?

TvbsFeb 2026

赴日注意!乱丢“1物”恐法 日媒:最高罚200万

fù rì zhù yì ! luàn diū 1 wù kǒng chù fǎ rì méi : zuì gāo fá 2 0 0 wàn

Attention to Japan! Throwing "1 thing" indiscriminately may violate the law Japanese media: The maximum fine is 2 million

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

中方抨滥征税 势新诉讼

zhōng fāng pēng làn zhēng shuì shì chù xīn sù sòng

China criticizes excessive taxation and is bound to lead to new lawsuits

百度新闻Feb 2026

欧洲斯托克600指数及新纪录高位

ōu zhōu sī tuō kè zhǐ shǔ chù jí xīn jì lù gāo wèi

Europe's Stoxx 600 touches new record highs

百度新闻Feb 2026

1935年出生的奶奶,解锁

nián chū shēng de nǎi nǎi , xiè suǒ chù bīng

Grandma, born in 1935, unlocks the touchscreen.

Tatoeba

犯会规,被踢出了俱乐部。

Tā chùfàn huì guī, bèi tī chū le jùlèbù.

He was excluded from the club for infractions of the rules.

Tatoeba

犯法律的人受到惩罚。

Chùfàn fǎlǜ de rén shòudào chéngfá.

People who break the law are punished.

Tatoeba

这个活塞不接汽缸盖。

Zhège huósāi bù jiēchù qìgāng gài.

The piston does not come into contact with the cylinder cover.

Tatoeba

我可以摸这个吗?

Wǒ kěyǐ chùmō zhège ma?

Can I touch this one too?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the horn radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced chù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 触 (chù) mean in Chinese?
触 (chù) primarily means "to touch." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1202 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 触 and 下?
触 (chù) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 触 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 触 have?
触 is written with 13 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 触?
The radical associated with 触 is 角 (horn). This radical appears in many characters related to horn.
What are the components of 触?
触 is composed of: 角 (semantic), 虫 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰角虫 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 触?
Common words with 触 include: 接触 (jiē chù, "to touch"); 触摸 (chù mō, "to touch"); 触动 (chù dòng, "to touch"); 触发 (chù fā, "to trigger"); 触犯 (chù fàn, "to violate"). There are over 75 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 触 (chù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chù: 出 (to go out), 初 (beginning), 除 (to get rid of), 厨 (kitchen), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 触 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 触 and the traditional form is 觸.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.