How to Write 删 (shān) — Meaning “delete / cut / edit out”

Imagine you have a book (册) and you need to remove a page by using a knife (刂). The action of slicing a page out of a book visually represents deleting or cutting something, making it easy to recall the meaning of 删.

Pay attention to the left part 册: it has five strokes and should be slightly narrow, while the right radical 刂 has two strokes. The vertical stroke of 刂 must be straight and longer than the left part, and avoid making the left side too wide or the knife stroke too short.

删 (shān) means to delete or cut out, especially in editing, while 刊 (kān) means to print or carve, often for publishing. 刎 (wěn) specifically means to cut the throat, a rare and violent action. Visually, 删 uses 册 (book) on the left, whereas 刊 has 干 (a stem) and 刎 has 吻 (mouth) as its left component.

删 is very common in digital and editing contexts, such as deleting a file on a computer or removing text from a document. It appears in words like 删除 (delete) and 删掉 (cross out), and is used daily in software, social media, and proofreading.

Common words containing 删 include: 删除 (shān chú) — delete / remove; 删掉 (shān diào) — delete / cross out; 删减 (shān jiǎn) — cut / reduce / abridge.