Your Complete Chinese Radical Chart Guide

As you may know, studying root words in English is an effective way to infer a word’s meaning and build vocabulary.

This article will introduce to you a similar method to apply in learning Chinese. That is learning Chinese character radicals.

But you may be wondering, what are radicals, and how can they help you study Chinese?

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What are Chinese radicals?

Chinese radicals are the base, graphical components that form Chinese vocabulary.

Basically, Chinese radicals and strokes form Chinese components; components form characters; characters make up Chinese words. Knowing the most basic Chinese radicals will allow you to learn new Chinese characters.

Both simplified and traditional Chinese characters are made of radicals and Chinese dictionaries are sorted by them.

The complete Chinese radical chart

The exact number of radicals varies. However, the standard & most commonly used radical chart is the Kangxi dictionary published in 1716.

This radical table includes the 214 radicals, their Pinyin, and the meaning for each radical. The radicals may have multiple forms, depending on their location within the character.

Numbered list of list of chinese radicals below:

No.	Radical	Pinyin	Meaning
1	一	yī	one
2	丨	gǔn	line
3	丶	zhǔ	stroke
4	丿乀乁	fú	oblique
5	乙乚乛	yǐ	sickle
6	亅	jué	hook
7	二	èr	two
8	亠	tóu	shelter, head
9	人亻	rén	man
10	儿	er	child
11	入	rù	to enter
12	八丷	bā	eight, separate
13	冂	jiōng	scope
14	冖	mì	to cover
15	冫	bīng	ice
16	几	jǐ	table
17	凵	qiǎn	container
18	刂刁刀ク	dāo	knife
19	力	lì	force
20	勹	bāo	to wrap
21	匕	bǐ	spoon, man overthrown
22	匚	fāng	open box
23	匸	xì	to hide
24	十	shí	ten
25	卜	bo	divination
26	卩	jié	seal
27	厂	chǎng	production facility
28	厶	sī	secret
29	又ヌ	yòu	still, hand
30	口	kǒu	mouth
31	囗	wéi	enclosure
32	土	tǔ	earth
33	士	shì	scholar
34	夂	zhǐ	to go
35	夊	suī	go slowly
36	夕	xī	evening
37	大	dà	big
38	女	nǚ	woman
39	子	zi	child
40	宀	mián	roof
41	寸	cùn	thumb
42	小⺌⺍	xiǎo	small
43	尢	yóu	weak
44	尸	shī	dead body
45	屮	chè	germ
46	山	shān	mountain
47	川巛	chuān	river
48	工	gōng	work
49	己	jǐ	personal
50	巾	jīn	turban
51	干	gàn	dry
52	幺	yāo	tiny
53	广	guǎng	shelter
54	廴	yǐn	great, stride
55	廾	gǒng	two, hands
56	弋	yì	shoot, arrow
57	弓	gōng	bow
58	彐彑	jì	snout
59	彡	shān	beard, brush
60	彳	chì	walk around
61	心忄	xīn	heart
62	戈	gē	halberd
63	戶户	hù	gate
64	手扌才	shǒu	hand
65	支	zhī	branch
66	攴攵	pū	to bump, hand
67	文	wén	writing
68	斗	dòu	measurer
69	斤	jīn	ax, 500 grams
70	方	fāng	square, direction
71	无	wú	without
72	日	rì	sun
73	曰	yuē	to say
74	月	yuè	moon
75	木朩	mù	tree
76	欠	qiàn	tired
77	止	zhǐ	to stop
78	歹	dǎi	death
79	殳	shū	weapon
80	母毋毌	mǔ	mother
81	比	bǐ	to confront
82	毛	máo	fur
83	氏	shì	clan
84	气	qì	air
85	水氵氺	shuǐ	water
86	火灬	huǒ	fire
87	爪爫	zhǎo	claw
88	父	fù	father
89	爻	yáo	double
90	爿	pán	splitted, wood
91	片	piàn	slice
92	牙	yá	tooth, ivory
93	牛牜⺧	niú	beef
94	犬犭	quǎn	dog
95	玄	xuán	deep
96	王玉	yù	jade
97	瓜	guā	melon
98	瓦	wǎ	tile
99	甘	gān	sweet
100	生	shēng	be born
101	用	yòng	to use
102	田	tián	field
103	疋⺪	pǐ	roll, piece of cloth
104	疒	nè	disease
105	癶	bō	to go up
106	白	bái	white
107	皮	pí	skin
108	皿	mǐn	container
109	目	mù	eye
110	矛	máo	spear
111	矢	shǐ	arrow
112	石	shí	stone
113	示礻	shì	to venerate, to show
114	禸	róu	get away
115	禾	hé	grain
116	穴	xué	cave, swing door
117	立	lì	standing up
118	竹⺮ケ	shì	bamboo
119	米	mǐ	rice
120	糸纟	mì	silk
121	缶	fǒu	jar
122	网罒罓罓	wǎng	net
123	羊⺶⺷	yáng	sheep
124	羽	yǔ	feather
125	老耂	lǎo	old
126	而	ér	and
127	耒	lěi	plow
128	耳	ěr	ear
129	聿	yù	brush
130	肉月	ròu	meat
131	臣	chén	minister
132	自	zì	personal
133	至	zhì	to reach
134	臼	jiù	mortar
135	舌	shé	tongue
136	舛	chuǎn	to oppose
137	舟	zhōu	boat
138	艮	gěn	decided
139	色	sè	color
140	艹	cao	vegetable
141	虍	hū	tiger
142	虫	chóng	insect
143	血	xuè	blood
144	行	xíng	circulate
145	衣衤	yī	cloth
146	西覀	xi	lid
147	见	jiàn	to see
148	角	jiǎo	horn
149	言讠	yán	speech
150	谷	gǔ	valley
151	豆	dòu	pea
152	豕	chù	pig
153	豸	zhì	feline, cat family
154	贝	bèi	shell, money
155	赤	chì	red
156	走	zǒu	to walk
157	足	zú	foot
158	身	shēn	body
159	车	chē	car
160	辛	xīn	bitter
161	辰	chén	morning
162	辶	chuò	brisk walking
163	阝 (邑)	fù	city
164	酉	yǒu	alcohol
165	釆	biàn	to distinguish
166	里	lǐ	neighborhood
167	金钅	jīn	gold, metal
168	长	zhǎng	long
169	门	mén	gate
170	阝(阜)	fù	mound
171	隶	lì	servant
172	隹	zhuī	short-tailed bird
173	雨	yǔ	rain
174	青	qīng	blue/green
175	非	fēi	false
176	面	miàn	face
177	革	gé	leather
178	韦	wéi	tanned leather
179	韭	jiǔ	leek
180	音	yīn	sound
181	页頁	yè	head, leaf
182	风	fēng	wind
183	飞	fēi	to fly
184	食饣	shí	to eat
185	首	shǒu	head
186	香	xiāng	perfume
187	马	mǎ	horse
188	骨	gǔ	bone
189	高	gāo	high
190	髟	biāo	hair
191	鬥	dòu	fight
192	鬯	chàng	sacrificial wine
193	鬲	gé	cauldron
194	鬼	guǐ	ghost
195	鱼	yú	fish
196	鸟	niǎo	bird
197	鹵	lǔ	salt
198	鹿	lù	deer
199	麦	mài	corn
200	麻	má	hemp
201	黃	huáng	yellow
202	黍	shǔ	millet
203	黑	hēi	black
204	黹	zhǐ	embroidery
205	黾	miǎn	frog
206	鼎	dǐng	tripod
207	鼓	gǔ	drum
208	鼠	shǔ	rat
209	鼻	bí	nose
210	齐	qí	regular
211	齿	chǐ	tooth, engrenage
212	龙	lóng	dragon
213	龟	guī	tortoise
214	龠	yuè	flute

214 Chinese radical meaning PDF list

Keeping this radical chart in hand can help you memorize Chinese characters better. You can print out the radical chart, keep one copy in your bag and review it whenever you have a minute to spare. Making sentences or flashcards with Chinese radicals is also an effective way to know how to use each word on particular occasions.

How can radicals help you study Chinese?

In general, knowing radicals helps you grasp the Chinese language more quickly.

You can break down complicated words into smaller, more basic units. Doing so helps you truly understand the meaning and logic behind the words, which will encode vocabulary into your brain for a longer time.

In addition, radicals help you link related words into groups, creating a systematic and efficient learning method. Sometimes, you can just guess a word’s meaning based on its radical.

Chinese radicals are also used to index characters. The Chinese language doesn’t have an alphabet, so dictionaries use radicals to categorize characters in order. So, in order to look up a word in a dictionary, you need to know radicals!

To close out

This completed Chinese radical chart is for you to reference! Use it when you want to look into a more complex Chinese character, word, and vocabulary.

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