出

chū
verb HSK 2 #105

Meanings

  1. 1 to go out
  2. 2 to come out
  3. 3 to produce
  4. 4 to appear
  5. 5 measure word for plays and operas

Characters

A foot stepping out of an enclosure.

Examples

HSK 1
Chū le shénme shì?
What happened?
HSK 3
Tàiyáng chūlái le.
The sun came out.
HSK 5
Zhè chū xì hěn hǎokàn.
This play is really good.

Tips

grammar
出 is commonly combined with directional complements: 出去 (go out, away from speaker), 出来 (come out, toward speaker).

Components

radical
凵 qiǎn
open container; receptacle radical
Lower 凵 is the open-receptacle radical and the entry's indexing radical. It is the pit or vessel the upper sprout climbs out of; the whole character literally pictures growth pushing up and away from its container.
semantic
屮 chè
sprout; young plant pushing up
Upper 屮 depicts a tender shoot breaking the ground. Stacking two 屮 shapes originally pictured a plant emerging step by step out of an enclosure, which is where the meaning go out, come forth, exit comes from.

Stroke Order

出 chū