The water radical — 水 (shuǐ)
A stream with eddies on either side. Written in full it appears at the bottom of a character — 泉 (spring), 泰 (peaceful) — while on the left it compresses to the three drops of 氵.
At a glance
- Radical
- 水
- Pinyin
- shuǐ
- Meaning
- Water
- Strokes
- 4 (4 strokes section)
Stroke order
Characters built on 水
Every character below contains 水. Meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator, so you can look any of them up in full there.
Mini-quiz — do you know these characters?
Five quick questions drawn from the characters above: see the character, pick its meaning. No sign-up, nothing saved.
水 — frequently asked questions
What does the Chinese radical 水 mean?
水 is pronounced shuǐ and means "water". It is written in 4 strokes. A stream with eddies on either side. Written in full it appears at the bottom of a character — 泉 (spring), 泰 (peaceful) — while on the left it compresses to the three drops of 氵.
Which characters use the 水 radical?
Common examples include 泉 (quán, Spring (fountain)), 永 (yǒng, Everlasting (forever)), 泰 (tài, Grand (peaceful - safe - most)), 浆 (jiāng, Paste (syrup - starch)). This page lists 4 of them with pinyin, meanings and audio.
How many strokes does 水 have?
4. Radical dictionaries file it in the 4 strokes section, which is how you look up an unfamiliar character when you cannot guess its pronunciation.
Other 4-stroke radicals
Keep going
Watch any of these characters being written in the Stroke Order Animator, practise them on printable 田字格 sheets, hunt radicals against the clock in Radical Hunt, or read the background in The 100 Most Common Chinese Radicals and Chinese Character Etymology.