The kanji 除 primarily conveys the meaning of "to remove," "to exclude," "to eliminate," or "to get rid of" something. It implies the act of taking something away, separating it from a whole, or making it no longer present. It can apply to physical objects, abstract concepts, or mathematical operations.

・On-yomi (音読み): ジョ (jo) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): のぞ（く） (nozo(ku))

⚫︎ 掃除（そうじ）をする Translation: To clean; to do the cleaning ⚫︎ 削除（さくじょ）する Translation: To delete; to remove ⚫︎ 除外（じょがい）する Translation: To exclude

If the user's native language is Vietnamese, this section would be included: Vietnamese shares a significant linguistic connection with Japanese kanji, with a correspondence rate of approximately 70%. The kanji 除 corresponds to several words in modern Vietnamese, derived from Sino-Vietnamese (Hán-Việt) vocabulary. For instance: ⚫︎ trừ - This word means "to subtract," "to eliminate," or "to remove." It has the same origin as the kanji 除

The kanji 除 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字). The left side is 阝, which is a variation of 阜, which means "mound" or "hill," also functioning here as a semantic component, related to the idea of removing or lowering. The right side is 余, which means "surplus" or "remainder," serving as the phonetic component, indicating the pronunciation and also hinting at the meaning of removing the surplus. The combination of the components suggests removing the unnecessary or the excess from something. It evolved over time with slight modifications in its form.