革

Tap the pinyin to hear it

animal hide; leather; to reform; to remove; to expel (from office)

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HSK 3.0: Level 5
Old HSK: Level 5
Strokes: 9
Radical: 革 itself
Structure: Top–bottom 上下
Traditional: 革
Common rank: #996
Unicode: U+9769

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 革 is formed

Pictograph (象形字)

An animal being skinned

Components 廿 ? unknown part

How to remember it

leather · Heisig RSH #1407

廿 twenty + 口 mouth + needle

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 革

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
新民主主义革命	Xīn Mín zhǔ zhǔ yì Gé mìng	(Maoism) New Democracy (aka New Democratic Revolution)
法国大革命	Fǎ guó Dà gé mìng	French Revolution (1789-1799)
文化大革命	Wén huà Dà gé mìng	Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
革出山门	gé chū shān mén	to excommunicate (from a Buddhist monastery)
四一二反革命政变	sì yī èr fǎn gé mìng zhèng biàn	counterrevolutionary coup of 12th April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek's coup against the communist…
中国国民党革命委员会	Zhōng guó Guó mín dǎng Gé mìng Wěi yuán huì	Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang
大马士革	Dà mǎ shì gé	Damascus, capital of Syria
旧民主主义革命	jiù mín zhǔ zhǔ yì gé mìng	old democratic revolution; bourgeois revolution (in Marx-Leninist theory, a prelude to the…
国民革命军	Guó mín Gé mìng jūn	National Revolutionary Army
革出教门	gé chū jiào mén	to excommunicate (from a church)
革兰阳性	gé lán yáng xìng	Gram-positive (bacteria)
法国革命	Fǎ guó Gé mìng	French Revolution (1789)
大马士革李	Dà mǎ shì gé lǐ	damson (fruit)
国家发展和改革委员会	Guó jiā Fā zhǎn hé Gǎi gé Wěi yuán huì	PRC National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), formed in 2003
变革管理	biàn gé guǎn lǐ	change management (business)
出血性登革热	chū xuè xìng dēng gé rè	dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)
民主革命	mín zhǔ gé mìng	democratic revolution; bourgeois revolution (in Marx-Leninist theory, a prelude to the pro…
工业革命	Gōng yè Gé mìng	Industrial Revolution, c. 1750-1830
身体是革命的本钱	shēn tǐ shì gé mìng de běn qián	lit. the body is the revolution's capital; fig. good health is a prerequisite for work (Ma…
合成革	hé chéng gé	synthetic leather

Sound family

These characters use 革 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
革 sound part	gé	leather, animal hide; to reform; to remove
勒	lè	to strangle; to tighten
缂	kè	the woof of a woven item
鞫	jū	to question, to interrogate