汰

Tap the pinyin to hear it

to discard; to eliminate

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

氵 meaning “water” + 太 sound ( tài )

Components 氵太

get rid of · Heisig RSH #1535

水 water + 太 overly

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
汰旧换新	tài jiù huàn xīn	out with the old and in with the new (idiom)
末位淘汰	mò wèi táo tài	sacking the worst-performing employee; elimination of the worst-performing contestant
优胜劣汰	yōu shèng liè tài	(idiom) survival of the fittest
淘汰赛	táo tài sài	a knockout competition
裁汰	cái tài	to cut back
埋汰	mái tai	(dialect) dirty; to mock sb
涤汰	dí tài	to wash away; to eradicate
劣汰	liè tài	elimination of the weak (cf. 優勝劣汰\|优胜劣汰[you1 sheng4 lie4 tai4])
淘汰	táo tài	to wash out; (fig.) to cull; to weed out; to eliminate; to die out; to phase out
甄汰	zhēn tài	to eliminate by examination
删汰	shān tài	(literary) to eliminate; to delete

Characters sharing the sound component 太 — compare how they read.