214 Must-Know Chinese Radicals for Every Learner

For those who’re learning the Chinese language, Chinese radicals are not a new concept. Many Chinese learners acknowledge the power of radicals in helping them learn Chinese characters more efficiently. And I bet you will too!

A radical is the main element in a character, and it hints at the meaning of the character. Mastering Chinese radicals will ease your learning journey and save you time and effort. In today’s article, let’s find out more about radicals, including looking at a list of the 214 must-know Chinese radicals, and how they help learners improve their study. Also, we’ll introduce the learning method of using mnemonics and discuss why they’re considered the best way to learn both radicals and characters. 

What are Chinese radicals?

First things first, let’s have a brief introduction to Chinese radicals. Chinese radicals are characters that help classify other characters into various groups based on these key pieces and these radicals serve as a semantic indicator, which means radicals can either stand as a single unit or combine with other Chinese components to form radical compounds. 

Chinese radicals are somewhat similar to prefixes and suffixes in English. Instead of creating thousands of new characters, Chinese people pair two or more radicals together to form a radical compound character. When a radical is placed next to a component, it’ll add more context to the whole character. If you’re still not sure what we mean, read on for examples!

An example of how radicals work

Let’s see what Chinese radicals can bring to the table! A radical has several functions: it hints at the character’s meaning and may even suggest the pronunciation. If a radical serves as a semantic function, it provides part or all of the meaning. If a radical serves as a phonetic (pronunciation) function, it indicates the sound to the character (or something very close to it). 

Let’s study an example below.

爸 bà, which means dad, is made of 2 radicals:

父 fù (father), is the semantic radical and also the key element

巴 bā (to wish), is the phonetics radical, i.e. most of the characters which contains 巴 are pronounced similar to “ba”.

Why does learning Chinese radicals benefit you?

All in all, learning radicals will ease your Chinese learning progress. Radical let you understand the relationships between components of a character. You can learn more characters if you know many radicals. Also, you can guess the meaning or pronunciation of a character if you know what the radical implies. 

List of 214 official Chinese radicals

Well, what’s next after knowing about radicals and their benefits? It’s time for you to explore this comprehensive list of 214 Chinese radicals. 

Each radical will be displayed along with its pinyin (romanized spelling for Chinese) and its meaning in English. It’s easy to follow and starts with characters with the least number of strokes. You can download the table, store it on your computer or print it out so you can reach for it whenever you need it. 

Number	Key	Pinyin	English
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	arrow-grapin
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 (trad)
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

Why using mnemonics is the best method to learn radicals 

The mnemonics method is not a new concept to language learners. More and more people are using mnemonic devices to increase their retention of information and improve their memory ability. The technique connects something you already know with something you’re trying to learn. Mnemonic devices have proven to be superior to other traditional learning techniques as it helps Chinese learners study radicals, characters, or vocabulary efficiently. 

The Chinese language system is made of characters instead of words. If you use a rote memorization technique to learn Chinese vocabulary, you can get the hang of simple characters and phrases such as 好 hǎo “good,” 做 zuò “do,” 什么 shénme “what, “你身体好吗 nǐ shēntǐ hǎo ma “Are you doing good?” 

However, complicated Chinese characters are another story. They have so many strokes, and if you keep learning everything by heart, chances are you can only retain what you learn for a short time. I bet you can’t learn these characters with rote memorization: 鱻  xiān “fresh/delicious,” 攀 pān “climb,” 尴尬 gāngà “awkward.”

That’s why learning characters and radicals with mnemonics works better than rote learning techniques. First, mnemonics helps you break down complex characters into parts. Then it uses memorable phrases as a story to connect character components to help you get the characters into your head. Simple but efficient!

Here’s an example. The character 越 yuè “to surpass/to exceed” consists of 2 components, the radical 走 zǒu “go” and the component. The component itself has another radical 戈 gē “halberd,” (if you’re not a medieval weapons fanatic, a halberd is a combined spear/battle axe). A mnemonic phrase to help you learn the character 越 is “If you want to surpass your competitors in a race, just run (走) with a halberd (戈), and everyone will back off!”

Final thoughts

The article today should have given you some insight into Chinese radicals, and now you have the list of 214 official Chinese radicals. By mastering these 214 radicals, you are sure to get the most out of your Chinese learning effort. Make sure you choose the right learning technique so that you can nail the 214 basics effortlessly!

Pandanese is a Chinese app designed for people who want to master the language efficiently and fast. Pandanese integrates mnemonics method and gamification to teach you over 6,000 Mandarin vocabulary and hanzi in as little as one year. Let Pandanese show you a new-and-improve way to learn Chinese!