What Are Chinese Radicals (部首)? The 214 Kangxi Radicals Explained
What radicals are, how the 214 Kangxi radicals organise every dictionary, the variant forms they take, and how radicals differ from Cangjie’s 24 keys.
Key takeaways
- A radical (部首) is the component a dictionary uses to file a character. Most dictionaries use the 214 Kangxi radicals from the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary.
- Radicals often hint at meaning: 氵 water, 木 wood, 口 mouth, 心 heart.
- Many radicals change shape inside characters: 水 → 氵, 手 → 扌, 心 → 忄, 人 → 亻.
- Cangjie’s 24 radicals (字根) are a different system for typing, not for dictionaries.
What a radical is
Chinese has no alphabet, so dictionaries need another way to group characters. The solution, refined over nearly two thousand years, is to choose one component of each character as its section header, called the radical. Characters sharing a radical are listed together, ordered by the number of additional strokes.
The standard set of 214 radicals comes from the Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典), completed in 1716. Modern dictionaries in Hong Kong and Taiwan still use it, and it is the basis of Unicode’s radical-stroke index. Browse all of them on our radical index.
Radicals and meaning
In phono-semantic characters, which make up the majority of characters, the radical is usually the meaning component:
| Radical | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 氵 (水) | water | 江 河 湖 海 |
| 木 | tree, wood | 林 樹 橋 |
| 口 | mouth | 吃 唱 問 |
| 忄 (心) | heart, feeling | 情 快 怕 |
| 扌 (手) | hand, action | 打 拿 推 |
| 言 | speech | 說 語 話 |
This makes radicals a powerful learning tool: if you know 氵 relates to water, you can guess the area of meaning of an unfamiliar character like 泳.
Variant forms
Many radicals are written differently depending on position:
| Radical | Variant | Name | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 人 | 亻 | 單人旁 | 你 |
| 水 | 氵 | 三點水 | 江 |
| 手 | 扌 | 提手旁 | 打 |
| 心 | 忄 | 豎心旁 | 情 |
| 火 | 灬 | 四點底 | 熱 |
| 犬 | 犭 | 反犬旁 | 狗 |
| 示 | 礻 | 示字旁 | 神 |
| 衣 | 衤 | 衣字旁 | 被 |
| 邑 / 阜 | 阝 | 右耳旁 / 左耳旁 | 都 / 陳 |
Note the last row: 阝 on the right is radical 163 邑 (city), while 阝 on the left is radical 170 阜 (mound). They look identical but are different radicals.
The most common radicals
In our dictionary of over 11,000 characters, the largest radical sections are 水 water, 金 metal, 口 mouth, 艸 grass, 木 wood, 手 hand, 糸 silk, 言 speech, 人 person and 心 heart. Learning these ten covers a large share of everyday characters.
How to find a character’s radical
- Look for the meaning component, usually the left side or top: 江 → 氵.
- Check enclosures: 國 → 囗, 問 → 口 (not 門, a common surprise).
- For single-unit characters, the radical is often the first stroke or a prominent part: 中 → 丨, 九 → 乙.
- If unsure, look it up: every character page shows its radical.
Radicals vs Cangjie radicals
The 214 radicals classify characters for dictionaries; each character has exactly one. Cangjie’s 24 radicals (字根) describe a character’s shape for typing, so every part is coded. Both involve seeing characters as components, which is why learning one helps with the other. See the Cangjie radicals.
Frequently asked questions
How many radicals are there?
The traditional Kangxi system has 214. Some modern mainland Chinese dictionaries use a simplified set of around 200.
What is the radical of 問?
口 (radical 30). Although 門 surrounds it, dictionaries file 問 under 口 because 口 carries the meaning.
Are radicals the same as Cangjie radicals?
No. Kangxi radicals classify characters in dictionaries; Cangjie’s 24 radicals are keyboard components for typing.
Related guides
How to use a Chinese dictionary
Five ways to find a character in a Chinese dictionary: by radical, by stroke count, by pronunciation, by four-corner code and by Cangjie code or handwriting online.
Character structure
The structural patterns Chinese characters are built from, how common each one is, and how to proportion each type neatly when writing.
Six Writings (六書)
The traditional six categories of Chinese character formation, from pictographs to phono-semantic compounds, with examples and real statistics on how common each is.
How to count strokes
How to count strokes correctly, why turning strokes count as one, and the radicals such as 艹, 辶 and 阝 that trip people up.