How to Write 澈 (chè) — Meaning “clear or transparent”

Imagine clear water (氵) flowing through a glass bottle, and you need to break through (徹) the dirt to make it clean. The right side 徹 looks like a person with a hand (攵) moving or breaking something in the middle. So picture your hand scrubbing water until it becomes crystal clear!

The left radical 氵 is written first, with three dots: dot, dot, then a short diagonal stroke. The right part 徹 is complex: start with 彳, then 育 (pay attention to the vertical strokes), then 攵. A common mistake is to write the right side too narrow or forget the middle part of 育. Make sure the overall character is balanced, with the left side slightly higher than the right.

澈 means extremely clear or transparent water, while 溏 (táng) refers to water that is not solid, like muddy or semi-liquid (e.g., 溏心蛋, runny egg yolk). 源 (yuán) means source or origin of water, like a spring. Visually, 澈 has the right part 徹, 溏 has 唐, and 源 has 原. So they share the water radical but have completely different meanings and pronunciations.

澈 is most often used in formal or literary descriptions of water, such as 清澈 (limpid) for spring water or a pool, or 澄澈 (crystal clear) for the sky. It can also mean "thorough" in 澈底 (same as 彻底), though 澈底 is less common. Culturally, 澈 conveys a sense of purity and honesty, so it sometimes appears in names or poetry to express a clean, untroubled quality.

Common words containing 澈 include: 清澈 (qīng chè) — limpid; crystal clear; 澄澈 (chéng chè) — crystal clear; 澈底 (chè dǐ) — thorough or complete.