Complete List of 214 Chinese Radicals with Meanings and Examples

Chinese characters aren't random drawings. They're constructed from a set of recurring components called radicals (部首, bùshǒu). Learning these radicals transforms character study from brute-force memorization into pattern recognition.

This page lists all 205 modern simplified radicals used in HanziFeed, organized by stroke count. We also explain the relationship to the traditional 214 Kangxi radicals and how to use this list as a practical learning tool.

For a deeper introduction to how radicals work and strategies for learning them, see our complete guide to Chinese radicals.

A radical is the semantic component of a Chinese character -- the part that hints at its meaning category. The character 河 (river) contains the water radical 氵, telling you this character relates to water. The character 妈 (mother) contains the woman radical 女, placing it in the family/female category.

Radicals serve two purposes. First, they're the traditional system for organizing Chinese dictionaries -- characters are indexed by their radical, then by remaining stroke count. Second, and more useful for learners, they reveal the logic behind character construction. When you know that 讠means speech, characters like 说 (to speak), 话 (speech), 语 (language), and 读 (to read) suddenly share a visible connection.

The original Kangxi radical system, compiled in 1716 for the Kangxi Dictionary, contains 214 radicals based on traditional (繁体) character forms. When China introduced simplified characters in the 1950s and 1960s, some radicals were merged or simplified along with the characters they appeared in.

The result: modern simplified Chinese uses approximately 205 distinct radicals. Several traditional radicals collapsed into shared simplified forms. For example, the traditional speech radical 言 (7 strokes) was simplified to 讠(2 strokes), and the traditional gold/metal radical 金 (8 strokes) became 钅(5 strokes).

If you're learning simplified Chinese (the standard in mainland China and Singapore), the 205 modern radicals listed below are what you need. If you're studying traditional characters (used in Taiwan and Hong Kong), you'll want the full 214 Kangxi set, which adds a few radicals that simplified Chinese merged.

This list is a reference, not a study plan. Here's how to get the most from it.

Not all radicals appear with equal frequency. Some show up in hundreds of characters while others appear in only a handful. If you're just starting out, focus on the radicals that give you the most coverage.

These 10 radicals alone will help you recognize patterns in several hundred common characters. Once you're comfortable with them, expand to the next tier: 火 (fire), 月 (moon), 金/钅 (metal), 竹 (bamboo), 艹 (grass), 纟 (silk), 贝 (shell), 石 (stone), 目 (eye), and 禾 (grain).

Radicals don't appear randomly within characters. They follow consistent positional patterns that become predictable once you know them.

This list is a reference you can return to anytime. But the most effective way to learn radicals is to see them inside the characters they build.

HanziFeed shows the radical decomposition for every one of its 3,145 characters. When you study a character, you see its radical, its components, and how it relates to other characters in the same family. This contextual approach makes radicals stick in a way that staring at a table never can.

For the theory behind why this works, read our guide to how Chinese characters are structured. If you're preparing for HSK exams, see how the 2026 HSK restructuring affects which characters you need to know.