Chinese Radicals Explained: What They Are and How to Use Them

Hanzi Grove · 2026-11-07

A radical is the component of a Chinese character that a dictionary uses to file it, and it often hints at the character’s meaning. Traditional dictionaries use a set of 214 radicals, called the Kangxi radicals. Learning the 20 to 30 most common ones, including their narrow “side forms”, gives you a head start on hundreds of characters.

This guide explains what radicals are, where the 214 come from, how their shapes change, how they hint at meaning, and how to use them to look up characters. It ends with a table of 30 radicals worth learning first.

What is a radical in Chinese?

Every character can be broken into components. One of those components is chosen as the character’s radical, called 部首 (bùshǒu) in Chinese, meaning roughly “section head”. Dictionaries group characters by radical, so all characters with the same radical sit in the same section.

For example, 妈 (mā, mother), 她 (tā, she), 姐 (jiě, older sister) and 好 (hǎo, good) all share the radical 女 (nǚ, woman). In a radical-based dictionary they are all found under 女.

The radical is usually the part that carries meaning. But it is first of all a filing label. Sometimes the radical has little to do with the modern meaning, and sometimes the meaning part and the radical are not the same component. Keep both ideas in mind: radicals are a strong clue, not a guarantee.

If you are not sure how components and layouts work yet, read how Chinese characters are built first.

What are the 214 Kangxi radicals?

The 214 radicals take their name from the Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典, Kāngxī Zìdiǎn), compiled under the Kangxi Emperor and published in 1716. The same 214-radical system had been used about a century earlier in the dictionary 字汇 (Zìhuì) by Mei Yingzuo, but the Kangxi Dictionary made it the standard.

The 214 radicals are ordered by stroke count, from 一 (one stroke, radical 1) to 龠 (seventeen strokes, radical 214). Each has a number. A few you will meet often:

• 人 (person) is radical 9
• 口 (mouth) is radical 30
• 心 (heart) is radical 61
• 手 (hand) is radical 64
• 水 (water) is radical 85
• 言 (speech) is radical 149

You can browse all 214, with example characters for each, on the radicals page.

Do modern dictionaries still use 214 radicals?

Many do, especially for traditional characters. Dictionaries for simplified Chinese often use a modified list, because simplification changed many shapes. Mainland China published a standard radical table in 2009 with 201 main radicals plus related variant forms. Different dictionaries may still file a few characters under different radicals.

For a learner, this matters very little. The common radicals are the same in every system. Only the numbering and some rare edge cases change.

What are radical side forms?

Many radicals change shape when they sit inside a character, especially on the left side or the top. The full form is often too wide, so it is squeezed into a narrow version. These are called side forms or variant forms.

Here are the side forms you will meet most:

Two groups of these need a note:

• 言, 食, 金 and 糸 have two side forms. Traditional characters use 訁, 飠, 釒 and 糹. Simplified characters use the shorter 讠, 饣, 钅 and 纟. So 说 is written 說 in traditional Chinese.
• 艸 and 辵 are almost never seen in their full form in everyday text. You will nearly always meet them as 艹 (on top) and 辶 (wrapping the bottom left).

Some radicals have more than one side form. 心 appears as 忄 on the left, as 心 at the bottom in 想 and 您, and as ⺗ at the bottom of a few characters. 水 appears as 氵 on the left and as 氺 at the bottom of a few characters.

What about 阝 on the left and right?

The shape 阝 is two different radicals depending on its side. On the left, it comes from 阜 (fù, mound), as in 阳 (yáng, sun). On the right, it comes from 邑 (yì, city), as in 那 (nà, that) and 都 (dōu, all). They look identical in modern writing but have different origins.

How do radicals hint at meaning?

Most characters are phono-semantic compounds: one part shows meaning and another shows sound. The meaning part is usually the radical. It tells you the general category, not the exact word.

Look at the 讠 (speech) family from HSK 1:

• 说 (shuō) to speak
• 话 (huà) words, speech
• 语 (yǔ) language
• 请 (qǐng) please, to invite
• 谢 (xiè) to thank
• 认 (rèn) to recognise
• 识 (shí) to know
• 谁 (shéi) who

All of these relate to speaking or knowing. Even 谁 fits, since “who” is a question you ask aloud.

The 氵 (water) family works the same way: 洗 (xǐ, to wash), 汽 (qì, steam, as in 汽车), 渴 (kě, thirsty) and 河 (hé, river) all have some link to water or liquid.

When do radicals not help?

Radicals stop helping when meanings have drifted, when characters were borrowed, or when simplification merged shapes. A few cases:

• 没 (méi, not have) has 氵. Its link to water is not obvious in modern use.
• 汉 (hàn, Chinese) has 氵 because it originally named the Han River. The meaning “Chinese” came later from the Han dynasty.
• 月 as a radical has two sources. In 明 and 期 it is the moon. In characters about the body, such as 脑 (brain) and 胖 (fat), it is a form of 肉 (flesh) that came to look like 月.

So use a radical as a first guess. Then confirm the meaning from the word you are learning.

How do you use radicals to look up a character?

Radical lookup is how you find a character you cannot pronounce. Phone apps now let you draw or photograph characters, but knowing the radical method still helps when handwriting recognition fails, and it is how paper dictionaries work.

Follow these steps:

1. Find the radical. Look for a familiar meaning part, usually on the left, top, or outside. In 请, it is 讠.
2. Count the radical’s strokes. 讠 has 2 strokes. Find the 2-stroke section of the radical index.
3. Find the radical in that section. It points you to a page or a list.
4. Count the remaining strokes. Everything in 请 except 讠 is 青, which has 8 strokes.
5. Look in the 8-stroke group under 讠. You will find 请 there, with its pronunciation.

Correct stroke counts depend on correct stroke order and stroke types, so the strokes page and the stroke order rules are worth a look.

How do you tell which part is the radical?

There is no single rule, but these patterns cover most cases:

• Left side in a left–right character: 你 (亻), 吃 (口), 妈 (女)
• Top in a top–bottom character: 茶 (艹), 字 (宀), 笑 (⺮)
• Bottom in a top–bottom character: 想 (心), 点 (灬)
• Outside in an enclosure: 国 (囗), 这 (辶), 问 (门)

If one part is a well-known radical and the other is not, the known one is usually the radical. When in doubt, check the character page on Hanzi Grove, which lists the radical for every character.

Which radicals should beginners learn first?

The table below lists 30 radicals that appear in many HSK 1 to 3 characters. Learn them as you meet them in real words, not as a list in one sitting. A side form of ”–” means the radical usually keeps its full shape.

A few notes on the table:

• Rows 18, 27 and 28 show the traditional radical first (門, 車, 貝) because that is how the Kangxi list writes them. In simplified Chinese you will see 门, 车 and 贝.
• Row 6 covers two sources. 有 and 朋 are filed under 月, while body words such as 脑 use 月 as a form of 肉 (flesh).
• Characters without links in the table are beyond the beginner set on this site, but they show how the radical family extends.

How should you practise radicals?

• Group new characters by radical. When you learn 饭, recall 饿 and 馆 too.
• Say the meaning aloud when you write the radical. “Speech” as you write 讠, “water” as you write 氵.
• Guess, then check. When you see a new character, guess its general meaning from the radical before looking it up.
• Keep radicals inside words. 吃饭 (chī fàn, to eat a meal) pairs 口 with 饣, two food-related clues in one word.

Common questions

Is a radical the same as a component?

No. A component is any reusable part. The radical is the one component chosen for dictionary filing. 请 has two components, 讠 and 青, and only 讠 is its radical.

Can a character be its own radical?

Yes. Characters such as 人, 口, 女 and 心 are radicals that also stand alone as words or characters.

Do radicals tell you the pronunciation?

Rarely. Radicals usually show meaning. The pronunciation hint, when there is one, comes from the other component, such as 马 in 妈 or 青 in 请.

Keep learning

Radicals become useful when you see them in real words. Put them to work with the HSK 1 study plan, or start practising now with HSK 1 group 1. You can also explore the 12 layout patterns that show where radicals sit inside a character.