褪 (tuì): to take off (clothes), to shed (feathers), (of color) to fade, (fig.) (of emotions, awareness etc) to fade

褪 (tuì) is a Chinese character meaning “to take off (clothes).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 衤 (structural) and 退 (structural). It ranks #3017 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 褪 th take off 退 clothing 衤; 退 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 衤 (clothing) appears in many related characters such as 衣 (yī, clothing), 被 (bèi, quilt, by), 装 (zhuāng, dress, install).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to take off (clothes)
  2. to shed (feathers)
  3. (of color) to fade
  4. (fig.) (of emotions, awareness etc) to fade

Etymology & Origin

褪

ideographicTh take off 退 clothing 衤; 退 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰衤退 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
褪色tuì sè(of colors) to fade
褪黑激素tuì hēi jī sù(biochemistry) melatonin
褪下tùn xiàto take off (trousers)
褪去tuì qùto take off (one's clothes)
褪套儿tùn tào r(coll.) to break loose
褪黑素tuì hēi sù(biochemistry) melatonin
褪光tuì guāngmatte (of a color etc)
7
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

褪 appears in 7 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 褪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

厘lí
0.75811 co-occurrences
眠mián
0.66911 co-occurrences
榜bǎng
0.58910 co-occurrences
素sù
0.58215 co-occurrences
含hán
0.56911 co-occurrences
黑hēi
0.52815 co-occurrences
酒jiǔ
0.46410 co-occurrences
言yán
0.43810 co-occurrences
助zhù
0.42311 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

真正的经典,褪色的只会是时间,不会是情感。

zhēn zhèng de jīng diǎn , tuì sè de zhī huì shì shí jiān , bù huì shì qíng gǎn .

A true classic—only time fades, not the emotions it evokes.

爱范儿Sep 2026

向左滑动查看更多内容 这种克制的好处,是照片褪去了算法的塑料感,多了一点现场感。

xiàng zuǒ huá dòng chá kàn gèng duō nèi róng zhè zhǒng kè zhì de hǎo chǔ , shì zhào piàn tuì qù le suàn fǎ de sù liào gǎn , duō le yī diǎn xiàn chǎng gǎn .

Swipe left to see more. The benefit of this restraint is that the photos lose the artificial look created by algorithms and gain a bit more of a sense of being there.

中国新闻网·体育Aug 2026

常规赛落下帷幕,赛事暂时进入淘汰赛备战间隙,但席卷东北的足球热潮并未褪去。

cháng guī sài luò xià wéi mù , sài shì zàn shí jìn rù táo tài sài bèi zhàn jiān xì , dàn xí juǎn dōng běi de zú qiú rè cháo bìng wèi tuì qù .

With the regular season coming to a close, the league is currently in a brief hiatus as teams prepare for the playoffs, but the soccer fever sweeping the Northeast shows no signs of abating.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

他褪去神仙滤镜,聚焦他们成仙前的凡人岁月,突出“烟火气非常重的一群人”。

tā tuì qù shén xiān lǜ jìng , jù jiāo tā men chéng xiān qián de fán rén suì yuè , tū chū yān huǒ qì fēi cháng chóng de yī qún rén .

He set aside the "immortal" filter and focused on their mortal lives before they became immortals, highlighting "a group of people with a very down-to-earth, everyday vibe."

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

褪去镜头剪辑的修饰、字幕特效的加持,线下舞台更真实、更鲜活。

tuì qù jìng tóu jiǎn jí de xiū shì , zì mù tè xiào de jiā chí , xiàn xià wǔ tái gèng zhēn shí , gèng xiān huó .

Stripped of the embellishments of camera editing and the enhancements of subtitle effects, the live stage feels more authentic and vibrant.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 褪 (tuì) mean in Chinese?
褪 (tuì) primarily means "to take off (clothes)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3017 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 褪 have?
褪 is written with 14 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 褪?
The radical associated with 褪 is 衤 (clothing). This radical appears in many characters related to clothing.
What are the components of 褪?
褪 is composed of: 衤 (structural), 退 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰衤退 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 褪?
Common words with 褪 include: 褪色 (tuì sè, "(of colors) to fade"); 褪黑激素 (tuì hēi jī sù, "(biochemistry) melatonin"); 褪下 (tùn xià, "to take off (trousers)"); 褪去 (tuì qù, "to take off (one's clothes)"); 褪套儿 (tùn tào r, "(coll.) to break loose"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
Is 褪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 褪 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 褪 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.