(è): to restrain, to check, to hold back

(è) is a Chinese character meaning “to restrain.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2565 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, walk. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to restrain
  2. to check
  3. to hold back

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶曷 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
è zhìto check
nù bù kě èunable to restrain one's anger (idiom)
è zhǐto hold back
è zǔto stop
zǔ èto impede
è yìto suppress
6
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 6 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 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.

0.5101,734 co-occurrences
zhì
0.50511,578 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.4924,788 co-occurrences
0.4551,470 co-occurrences
0.388282 co-occurrences
0.369450 co-occurrences
0.36196 co-occurrences
xiào
0.343789 co-occurrences
cuò
0.341234 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.336216 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

nùbùkě'èHSK 7+

unable to contain one's anger; cannot restrain one's fury; be in a towering rage

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

è zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "遏" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

ZaobaoMar 2026

金正恩称韩国为“头号敌国” 强调强化核制力

jīn zhèng ēn chèn hán guó wéi tóu hào dí guó qiáng diào qiáng huà hé è zhì lì

Kim Jong-un Calls South Korea the "Number One Enemy" and Stresses the Need to Strengthen Nuclear Deterrence

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

通膨忧虑持续制降息预期 短期美债连续第四日下跌

tōng péng yōu lǜ chí xù è zhì jiàng xī yù qī duǎn qī měi zhài lián xù dì sì rì xià diē

Inflation concerns continue to dampen expectations of interest rate cuts; short-term U.S. Treasuries fall for the fourth consecutive day

LtnMar 2026

止外国车“加油观光”抢便宜 斯洛伐克祭出...

è zhǐ wài guó chē jiā yóu guàn guāng qiǎng biàn yí sī 洛 fá kè jì chū . . .

To curb foreign drivers stopping to refuel and shop for bargains, Slovakia has introduced...

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

南韩股市大涨,监管机构出手制“双重上市”

nán hán gǔ shì dà zhǎng , jiān guǎn jī gòu chū shǒu è zhì shuāng chóng shàng shì

South Korean stock market surges as regulators step in to curb "dual listings"

Hk01.comFeb 2026

巴拿马硬抢长和港口 中国须严厉回击制更严重“破窗效应”

bā ná mǎ yìng qiǎng cháng hé gǎng kǒu zhōng guó xū yán lì huí jī è zhì gēng yán chóng pò chuāng xiào yīng

Panama has a hard time grabbing Changhe ports, and China must fight back severely to curb the more serious "broken window effect"

Tatoeba

我无法制住我的怒火。

Wǒ wúfǎ èzhì zhù wǒ de nùhuǒ.

I couldn't control my anger.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced è

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 遏 (è) mean in Chinese?
遏 (è) primarily means "to restrain." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2565 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 遏 and 前?
遏 (è) and 前 (qián) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 遏 (back) vs 前 (front).
How many strokes does 遏 have?
遏 is written with 12 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 遏?
The radical associated with 遏 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 遏?
遏 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 曷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶曷 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 遏?
Common words with 遏 include: 遏制 (è zhì, "to check"); 怒不可遏 (nù bù kě è, "unable to restrain one's anger (idiom)"); 遏止 (è zhǐ, "to hold back"); 遏阻 (è zǔ, "to stop"); 阻遏 (zǔ è, "to impede"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 遏 (è)?
Several characters share the pronunciation è: 讹 (error), 俄 (Russia), 娥 (good), 鹅 (goose), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 遏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 遏 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.