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The most common Chinese radicals

What a radical is, and what a component is

Almost all characters are built from smaller pieces that repeat. Each piece is a component (部件 bùjiàn). The radical is a special component: the one dictionaries use to sort characters. Each character is filed under a single radical, even if it has several components.

For example, 妈 (mā, mom) has two components: 女 (woman) and 马 (mǎ, horse). Its radical is 女, which hints at the meaning; 马 hints at the sound.

How many radicals are there?

The 214 Kangxi radicals are the classic reference. The 2009 table is the standard in mainland China, and dictionaries like the Xinhua Zidian (新华字典) follow it. For studying, the difference hardly matters: every radical in this guide is in both systems.

One clue for meaning, another for sound

Most characters are “phono-semantic compounds” (形声字 xíngshēngzì): one part, usually the radical, points to the meaning, and another points to the pronunciation. The linguist Zhou Youguang counted that 6,542 of the 8,075 characters in the 1971 Xinhua dictionary, 81%, have this structure.

So 清 (qīng, clear, clean) combines 氵 (water) with 青 (qīng), which gives the sound. And 请 (qǐng, please) combines 讠 (speech) with the same 青.

The 25 most useful radicals to start with

These are the 25 that form the most characters among the 3,500 commonly used characters on China's official 2013 list, according to a count published in 2022. We merged the forms of the same radical (like 心 and 忄) and left out 一, which is a single stroke. They go from most to least frequent; in brackets, the other form of the same radical.

Others you'll meet soon, even though they form fewer characters: 足 (foot: 跑 pǎo, to run), 疒 (sickness: 疼 téng, to hurt), 门 (gate, door: 闭 bì, to close), 车 (vehicle: 轮 lún, wheel) and 饣 (food: 饿 è, hungry).

When the clue fails

• 月 can be moon or meat. In simplified Chinese, the meat radical (肉) is written just like 月 when it's on the side. 期 (qī, period of time) has the moon; 脸 (liǎn, face) and 胖 (pàng, fat) have the meat radical, which is why they're about the body.
• Meanings changed over the centuries. 错 (cuò, mistake) has 钅, metal: it originally meant “grindstone”. 骗 (piàn, to cheat) has 马, horse: it first meant to mount a horse by swinging a leg over it.
• The dictionary radical doesn't always give the meaning. In dictionaries like MDBG, 问 (wèn, to ask) is filed under 门 (gate), but there 门 (mén) gives the sound: the meaning comes from 口, the mouth.
• The sound clue is only approximate. Take 青 (qīng): 清 qīng sounds the same; 请 qǐng and 晴 qíng change the tone; 睛 jīng changes the consonant, and 猜 cāi (to guess) sounds nothing like it. Zhou Youguang calculated that, of the 1,348 sound parts in the Xinhua dictionary, only 386 (29%) reliably indicate the pronunciation, and only 234 (17%) the tone as well.

How to use them to study

• Group characters by family. When you learn 妈, review 姐 and 她 next to it. In a 2014 study (Xu, Chang and Perfetti), beginners who learned characters sharing a radical together remembered them better than those who studied them separately; at the intermediate level there was no difference.
• Look characters up by radical. If you don't know how to read a character, find it in the dictionary's radical index and count the remaining strokes. In Pleco, you pick the radical from the 214 Kangxi radicals; you can also draw the character with your finger.
• Don't memorize the list of 214. Learn each radical when it shows up in a word you're studying: that way you remember it with a real example.

Radicals are one of the techniques in how to memorize Chinese characters. To write them correctly, see the stroke order rules, and if you want to know how many characters you need to read, it's in how many Chinese characters you need to know.

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Frequently asked questions

How many Chinese radicals are there?

It depends on the system. The Kangxi Dictionary, from 1716, set 214, which are still the classic reference. China's official table (汉字部首表, from 2009 and revised in 2022) uses 201 main radicals.

Do I need to learn all 214 radicals?

No. To start, the 20 or 30 most frequent ones are enough. You'll pick up the rest as they appear in the words you study.

What's the difference between a radical and a component?

A component (部件 bùjiàn) is any piece that's part of a character. The radical (部首 bùshǒu) is the component the dictionary files that character under: each character has only one, even if it has several components.

Does the radical always tell you the meaning?

No. It often gives a clue, but the meaning of some characters has changed over the centuries, and sometimes the dictionary radical is the part that gives the sound, like 门 in 问 (wèn, to ask).

How do I look up a character by its radical?

In a paper dictionary, you find the radical in the radical index and count the remaining strokes. In apps like Pleco, you pick the radical from a list, or you draw the character with your finger.

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