How to Write 剔 (tī) — Meaning “To pick / To scrape”

Imagine using a knife (刂) to pick out a difficult (易—think of "easy" but here opposite) piece of food stuck in your teeth. The 易 part looks like a sun and a squiggly line, so picture the knife scraping a stubborn piece of food away.

Write the left part 易 first, then the right side 刂. The 易 component has 8 strokes: pay attention to the two horizontal lines at the top and the curved stroke for the "sun" shape. A common mistake is making the knife radical too far away or misplacing the slash of 刂; keep it close to the left part and ensure the vertical stroke of 刂 is straight.

剔 and 刮 (guā, to scrape) both involve scraping, but 剔 emphasizes picking or removing specific small things (like teeth or unwanted parts), while 刮 means scraping a surface broadly. 到 (dào, to arrive) looks similar but has 至 on the left and 刂 on the right, meaning "to reach," unrelated to scraping. Visually, 剔 has 易 on the left, 刮 has 舌 (tongue), and 到 has 至 (arrive).

剔 appears in common words like 挑剔 (tiāo tī, picky), used to describe overly critical people, and 剔牙 (tī yá, to pick one's teeth), a daily hygiene action. The character carries a nuance of careful removal, so it is often used metaphorically, as in 剔除 (tī chú, to eliminate), meaning to weed out unwanted items or ideas.

Common words containing 剔 include: 挑剔 (tiāo tī) — picky; fastidious; 剔牙 (tī yá) — To pick one's teeth; 剔除 (tī chú) — To eliminate / To weed out.