The pattern A 离 B + distance describes how far apart two things are: 我家离学校很近 (My home is close to the school). 离 also expresses time-distance: 离春节还有一个月 (There's still a month until Spring Festival).
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Classical texts also record a chī reading meaning a hornless dragon or mythical beast, but this sense is archaic and effectively replaced by the dedicated graph 螭. In modern Chinese, 离 is read lí in every living word - you will not meet the chī reading outside historical or literary contexts.
Components
ideograph
离lí
leave; depart; apart from
Treat simplified 离 as a single ideographic unit. Historically 離 was 隹 (short-tailed bird) on the right plus 离 on the left as phonetic, picturing a bird flying away; the 1956 reform dropped 隹 entirely. Indexed under Kangxi #114 禸 (animal-track) by tradition via the claw-print residue at the base, though no transparent element survives in the modern shape.
Filed under radical 禸 (róu, #114) by convention. 禸 is not a separate component in 离, so no strokes are highlighted.
