What 锄 means
It carries weed clearing over to people and threats.
The Han-era Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary, records 鉏 as a standing weeding tool.
The Han-era Han Shu uses it figuratively for “root out.” Early Joseon-era Korean farming texts use 鋤 for hoeing: spring work conserved soil moisture; summer work cleared weeds.
Literal in farming; forceful in compounds about people.
Don't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
2Root out traitors; forceful figurative use.
Oppose the powerful and support the weak.
Questions people ask
1Why does 锄 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 锄
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 9504, then Alt+X to get 锄.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-9504”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 9504, then Enter or Space.
HTML
锄CSS
\9504Pinyin
On a Chinese Pinyin keyboard (Mandarin sound-based input), type chu; choose 锄 for simplified or 鋤 for traditional Chinese.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
锄
HTML hex
锄
CSS content
content: "\9504";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E9%94%84
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.