happening / instance / reason / cause / intentional / former / old / friend / therefore / hence / (of people) to die, dead

= + : Mnemonic symbol: This character only appears in 做, so we don't need a strong mnemonic symbol. We should be able to refer to 故 when we think of 故事 or 故意. Because it fits nicely to its components, I'll think of it as in the meaning of 故墓, an old grave.

= + : There is an ancient cloister in the space station's bathroom, and Gitta Giraffe once heard a story from her fellow astronauts that there's an old tomb inside with lots of treasure. One day she can't hold herself back anymore and deliberately breaks the cloister open using a sledgehammer.

故 character breakdown

surname Gu
ancient / old / paleo-

= + : Mnemonic symbol: at least on German maps, this character actually resembles a cloister.

Oh no! Gitta Giraffe (gu) found that the golden cross (十) broke off of the cloister (古) in the space station's living room (Ø3)! She skewers a mandarin (口) on top of the cloister so that she can skewer the broken off cross back on to fix it.
variant of 攴[pu1]

= 𠂉 + : Mnemonic symbol: the epitome of rapping and tapping is a sledge hammer. Petra pinguin (pu) forgot her key (𠂉) and know she's locked out of the space station (Ø1). At first she tries to open the lock with pliers (乂), but in the end she has no choice but to use the sledge hammer (攵).

Characters with 故 as component

to make; to produce / to write; to compose / to do; to engage in; to hold (a party etc) / (of a person) to be (an intermediary, a good student etc); to become (husband and wife, friends etc) / (of a thing) to serve as; to be used for / to assume (an air or manner)

= + : In observatory's bathroom, Zapatista Zebra uses the well in the middle of the room as an old tomb and throws a dead Rosa Luxemburg inside to hide her corpse.

Words with 故

deliberately mystifying / to make sth unnecessarily complicated
former imperial palace
Palace Museum, in the Forbidden City, Beijing / National Palace Museum, Taipei
old and respected family / family whose members have been officials from generation to generation
descended from an old family
one's old self / one's original self / what one has always been
old estate / former empire / former occupation
stuck in the old ways (idiom); refusing to acknowledge new ideas / stagnating and conservative
the Forbidden City / abbr. for 故宮博物院|故宫博物院[Gu4 gong1 Bo2 wu4 yuan4]

Sentences with 故

故 currently does not appear in any sentence.