Top 50 Kanji Radicals by Frequency: The 70% Coverage List for Jōyō Kanji
The top 50 kanji radicals by frequency are the 部首 (bushu, kanji radicals) that serve as the single Kangxi indexing head for the largest share of the 2,136 jōyō kanji.12 Learn this short list first, and you can place roughly three of every four jōyō kanji into a known radical family on sight.13
Overview
This page is a ranked reference table. It shows which radicals to memorize first, what each one means, which alternate position forms count as the same radical, and which jōyō kanji file under each row.14
What this list is (and is not)
The rows below are radicals ordered by how many jōyō kanji file under each one as their single Kangxi indexing head.152 Every kanji has exactly one indexing head. Everything else in the character is a component, not a radical.5 The strict 部首 definition and the radical-versus-component distinction are covered in their own articles and are not repeated here.
"Indexing head" is stricter than "visible component." 一 is visible in hundreds of kanji, but it is the indexing head for only a handful. 心 is the indexing head for a much larger jōyō slice than its drawn-shape count alone would suggest.15
Why 50, and what 50 buys you
The canonical Wikipedia frequency list groups the 214 radicals into three tiers by jōyō coverage.1
- The top 6 radicals cover roughly one quarter (≈ 25%, ≈ 534 kanji) of the 2,136 jōyō kanji.1
- The top 20 radicals cover roughly half (≈ 50%, ≈ 1,068 kanji) of the 2,136 jōyō kanji.1
- The top 52 radicals cover roughly three quarters (≈ 75%, ≈ 1,602 kanji) of the 2,136 jōyō kanji.13
The "Top 50" framing in the title rounds the 52-radical tier to 50 for memorability. The actual three-quarter cut sits at rank 52, so the table below includes 寸 and 頁 as ranks 51 and 52 to preserve the tier endpoint.13
The Wikipedia source only fixes three coverage milestones (top 6, top 20, top 52); it does not publish an intermediate value at rank 30. Headline numbers in this article track the published tiers, not interpolated round numbers.1
Methodology
Ranking source
The main aggregate source is Wikipedia's "List of kanji radicals by frequency." It counts each jōyō kanji's single Kangxi indexing head and ranks the 214 radicals by that count.1 The underlying data comes from the RADKFILE / KRADFILE files maintained by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (EDRDG); the article's talk page confirms this provenance.6
The jōyō denominator is the 2010 jōyō list of 2,136 characters.2 Frequency in this list is frequency as indexing head, not frequency as visible component.15
Variant position forms count as the same radical as their parent Kangxi entry, not as separate rows. Examples include 氵 for 水, 忄 for 心, 灬 for 火, 扌 for 手, 亻 for 人, 刂 for 刀, 艹 for 艸, and 辶 for 辵.47891011121314
What "alternate position forms" means in the table
A single Kangxi entry can take a compressed shape when it sits in a fixed slot of a character. The indexing head is the same, but the drawn form differs.4 The canonical pairings the table represents in one cell each include:
- 水 (Kangxi 85) / 氵 (left, さんずい).7
- 心 (Kangxi 61) / 忄 (left, りっしんべん) / ⺗ (bottom, in a small set).8
- 火 (Kangxi 86) / 灬 (bottom, れっか / れんが).11
- 手 (Kangxi 64) / 扌 (left, てへん).9
- 人 (Kangxi 9) / 亻 (left, にんべん).10
- 刀 (Kangxi 18) / 刂 (right, りっとう).14
- 艸 (Kangxi 140) / 艹 (top, くさかんむり).12
- 辵 (Kangxi 162) / 辶 (left-bottom wrap, しんにょう).13
- 阜 (Kangxi 170) / 阝 on the left (こざとへん); 邑 (Kangxi 163) / 阝 on the right (おおざと): same glyph, two different Kangxi heads by position.15
- 网 (Kangxi 122) / 罒 (top, あみがしら / よこめ).16
- 示 (Kangxi 113) / 礻 (left, しめすへん).17
- 衣 (Kangxi 145) / 衤 (left, ころもへん).18
- 犬 (Kangxi 94) / 犭 (left, けものへん).19
- 竹 (Kangxi 118) / ⺮ (top, たけかんむり).20
- 肉 (Kangxi 130) / ⺼ (left or bottom, indistinguishable in print from the 月 of Kangxi 74).2122
The seven position names (へん, つくり, かんむり, あし, たれ, にょう, かまえ) are covered in the Radicals by Position article, not repeated here.
What "example kanji" means in the table
Each row gives 3 to 5 jōyō kanji that file under the row's radical as their single Kangxi indexing head. The examples lean toward N5 and N4 frequency, so a beginning learner can recognise them on sight.2 Each example was verified one by one against Wiktionary's radical line; citations sit on the first kanji in each row.
A jōyō kanji that visually contains the row's radical but files under a different head is not an example for that row. 明 visually contains 月, but files under Kangxi 72 (日), so it does not appear under the 月 row. 字 visually contains 宀 on top, but files under Kangxi 39 (子), so it does not appear under the 宀 row.23
The top 50 radicals
Cumulative coverage at a glance
These are the published milestones from the Wikipedia tier groupings:1
| Rank range | Cumulative jōyō coverage | Approximate kanji count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 6 | ≈ 25% | ≈ 534 / 2,136 |
| 1 to 20 | ≈ 50% | ≈ 1,068 / 2,136 |
| 1 to 52 | ≈ 75% | ≈ 1,602 / 2,136 |
Intermediate values at ranks 10 and 30 are not published in the source. An interpolated estimate puts rank 10 at roughly one third and rank 30 at roughly three fifths, but these are estimates, not source figures.1
The published Wikipedia frequency ordering explicitly fixes only the top 6 as "in order of frequency."1 The source lists the 14 additional radicals that complete the top-20 tier and the 32 additional radicals that complete the top-52 tier, but it does not strictly rank them within their tier. The "Rank" column in the full table preserves Wikipedia's listed order within each tier. Treat ranks 7 to 20 and ranks 21 to 50 as tier-position approximations, not precise per-radical rankings.
The full table (ranks 1–52)
Source: Wikipedia "List of kanji radicals by frequency," supplemented by Wiktionary radical-line verification for each example kanji.14 The source reports coverage tier cuts at ranks 6 / 20 / 52; rank within a tier follows Wikipedia's listed order. Ranks 51 and 52 (寸, 頁) are the tier endpoint and are included so the 75% coverage line is honoured.
| Rank | Radical (variant forms) | Meaning | Kangxi # | Example jōyō kanji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 口 | mouth | 30 | 中,24 名,25 和, 同, 各 |
| 2 | 水 / 氵 | water | 85 | 海,26 池, 河, 流, 泳 |
| 3 | 木 | tree, wood | 75 | 林, 森, 校,27 村, 本 |
| 4 | 人 / 亻 | person | 9 | 休,28 体, 仕, 仏, 何 |
| 5 | 手 / 扌 | hand | 64 | 持,29 打, 投, 押, 折 |
| 6 | 心 / 忄 / ⺗ | heart, mind | 61 | 思,30 想, 感, 性, 情 |
| 7 | 言 / 訁 | speech | 149 | 語,31 話,32 読, 説, 詞 |
| 8 | 日 | sun, day | 72 | 時,33 明,23 早, 昨, 暗 |
| 9 | 糸 | thread, silk | 120 | 紙,34 約,35 紅, 結, 経 |
| 10 | 幺 | short thread | 52 | 幼,36 幻,37 幾 |
| 11 | 肉 / ⺼ | meat, flesh | 130 | 腕,21 肝,22 肺, 胃, 脳 |
| 12 | 月 | moon, month | 74 | 朝,38 服,39 期, 望 |
| 13 | 土 | earth, soil | 32 | 地,40 場,41 城, 増, 境 |
| 14 | 辵 / 辶 | walk, advance | 162 | 道,42 近,43 通, 進, 送 |
| 15 | 艸 / 艹 | grass, plant | 140 | 花,44 茶,45 草, 菜, 葉 |
| 16 | 宀 | roof | 40 | 家,46 安,47 室, 守, 客 |
| 17 | 貝 | shell, money | 154 | 買,48 貯,49 財, 賃, 賞 |
| 18 | 女 | woman | 38 | 好,50 妹,51 姉, 始, 婚 |
| 19 | 阝 (left, from 阜) | mound, terrain | 170 | 院,52 防, 限, 階, 際 |
| 19 | 阝 (right, from 邑) | village, city | 163 | 都,53 部, 郡, 郷, 郵 |
| 20 | 金 / 釒 | metal, gold | 167 | 鉄,54 銀,55 鋼, 鏡, 鐘 |
| 21 | 一 | one | 1 | 三,56 七, 上, 下, 不 |
| 22 | 刀 / 刂 | knife, sword | 18 | 切,57 別,58 前,59 利, 刑 |
| 23 | 十 | ten | 24 | 千,60 半,61 南,62 協, 博 |
| 24 | 田 | rice field | 102 | 町,63 男,64 畑,65 界, 留 |
| 25 | 火 / 灬 | fire | 86 | 灯,66 焼,67 熱,68 災, 照 |
| 26 | 大 | big | 37 | 天,69 太,70 失, 奪, 奥 |
| 27 | 山 | mountain | 46 | 岳,71 島,72 岸, 峠, 峰 |
| 28 | 食 / 飠 | eat, food | 184 | 飯,73 館,74 飼, 飲, 養 |
| 29 | 車 | vehicle | 159 | 軍,75 転,76 軽, 輝, 輸 |
| 30 | 彳 | step | 60 | 得,77 後,78 役, 待, 徳 |
| 31 | 目 / 罒 | eye | 109 | 真,79 県, 着, 直, 看 |
| 32 | 雨 | rain | 173 | 雪,80 雲,81 雷, 電, 露 |
| 33 | 犬 / 犭 | dog | 94 | 犯,82 独,83 状, 獣 |
| 34 | 玉 / 王 | jade, jewel | 96 | 球,84 理,85 現, 班, 珍 |
| 35 | 石 | stone | 112 | 石,86 研,87 破, 砕, 確 |
| 36 | 力 | power, strength | 19 | 動,88 助,89 効, 励, 勝 |
| 37 | 衣 / 衤 | clothes | 145 | 被,90 裏,91 表, 装, 製 |
| 38 | 弓 | bow | 57 | 強,92 引,93 弟, 張, 弾 |
| 39 | 竹 / ⺮ | bamboo | 118 | 答,94 等,95 算, 箱, 節 |
| 40 | 又 | again, hand | 29 | 友,96 取,97 受,98 反, 双 |
| 41 | 攴 / 攵 | strike, action | 66 | 数,99 教,100 改,101 放, 政 |
| 42 | 夂 | go, walk slowly | 35 | 夏,102 変,103 麦 |
| 43 | 示 / 礻 | spirit, altar | 113 | 社,104 神,105 禁,106 祭, 福 |
| 44 | 酉 | wine, liquor | 164 | 酒,107 配,108 酌, 酔, 醸 |
| 45 | 囗 | enclosure | 31 | 国,109 四,110 園, 困, 図 |
| 46 | 禾 | grain | 115 | 私,111 秋,112 科,113 種, 程 |
| 47 | 广 | dotted cliff, eaves | 53 | 店,114 広,115 床,116 度, 座 |
| 48 | 疒 | sickness | 104 | 病,117 痛,118 症, 疲, 療 |
| 49 | 巾 | cloth, towel | 50 | 市,119 布,120 帝,121 常, 帯 |
| 50 | 尸 | corpse, body | 44 | 尺,122 局,123 居, 屋, 層 |
| 51 | 寸 | inch, measure | 41 | 寺,124 対,125 時, 討, 専 |
| 52 | 頁 | head, page | 181 | 頭,126 顔, 順, 願, 額 |
How to use this list
Read meaning-first, not shape-first
A radical's meaning gives its row predictive value, not its drawn shape. 氵 only helps if you pair it with "water"; the three drawn dots are inert without the gloss.5
The meaning prediction is one-directional and partial. A kanji's radical sometimes hints at its meaning family. For example, 氵 marks 海, 河, 流, 池 as water-family. But the indexing head is a filing decision, not a meaning guarantee.5 The deeper treatment of when the hint holds and when it does not belongs to the Semantic Components article.
Watch the position-form changes
水 and 氵 are the same radical (Kangxi 85), drawn differently because of position.7 心 / 忄, 火 / 灬, 手 / 扌, 人 / 亻, 刀 / 刂, 肉 / ⺼, 艸 / 艹, and 辵 / 辶 all follow the same pattern.8910111213 Every position variant appears in the same row of the table. The position names (さんずい, りっしんべん, and the rest) are covered in the Radicals by Position article.
阝 is the special case: the same drawn glyph can represent two different Kangxi heads. On the left, it is こざとへん from 阜 (Kangxi 170); on the right, it is おおざと from 邑 (Kangxi 163).15 The table gives it two rows under one shared rank.
Where the prediction stops
The indexing head is a lookup key, not a meaning guarantee. 明 visibly contains 月 but files under 日 (Kangxi 72), because the dictionary editor chose 日 as the more informative head.23 The visible 月 in 明 is a component, not that kanji's radical.5
Some kanji file under a Kangxi head that no longer reflects their modern meaning. The deeper version of this caveat, indexing convention versus etymological meaning, is covered in the Radicals vs Components article.
Good to know
Where the "top 30 ≈ 70%" figure comes from
Popular pedagogy sources often quote "the top 30 radicals cover 70% of jōyō kanji," but the canonical Wikipedia frequency table does not publish that figure.1 The published tier cuts are 25%, 50%, and 75% at ranks 6, 20, and 52; there is no source value at rank 30. Interpolating between the 50% and 75% milestones puts rank 30 somewhere in the low 60s percent, not 70%.
The honest threshold for "three quarters of jōyō kanji" is closer to 50 than to 30, which is why this article fixes the headline at 50 (with the 52-rank tier endpoint included).13
The "51 = 75%" figure circulates more widely than "50 = 75%"
The Wikipedia tier ends at radical 52, and ejable.com's aggregate-pedagogy article rounds to 51 instead of 52.13 Both refer to the same three-quarter coverage milestone. Rounding to 50 is a memorability choice, not a different dataset. The table above includes the rank-51 and rank-52 rows (寸 and 頁), so the headline number is memorable while the tier endpoint is honoured.
Frequency as indexing head differs from frequency as visible component
一 is visible inside hundreds of jōyō kanji (as part of 三, 五, 上, 下, 不, 王, and many more), but it is the indexing head for a much smaller set. The same is true of 丶 and 丿.15 Wikipedia also publishes a "frequency as visual component" ordering. That ordering ranks 口 first with 2,839 hits across a broader corpus and lists 一, 丿, 丨 in the top four; it is not the jōyō-indexing-head ordering used in this article's table.1 When other sources rank 一 as the most common radical, they are usually using the visible-component definition, not the indexing-head definition.
Radicals dropped from this list (ranks 53 to 214)
The 162 radicals not in the top 52 each contribute fewer than roughly 15 jōyō kanji as indexing head, and many contribute fewer than 5.1 Many are stroke-count artifacts. The four single-stroke radicals 一, 丨, 丶, 丿 all rank near the top by visible-component count, but only 一 makes the jōyō-indexing top 50. The other three index almost no jōyō kanji.15
At the bottom of the 214-radical list, 鼓, 鼠, 鼻, 齊, 齒, 龍, 龜, and 龠 each index a single jōyō kanji or none at all.4
WaniKani-style "radicals" are a different list
WaniKani and the Heisig "primitives" system define "radical" as a memorable mnemonic chunk per kanji, often several per character. That list is a superset of the 214 Kangxi heads, not a subset.5 When other learners say "I learned 200 radicals on WaniKani," they are counting mnemonic chunks, not indexing heads. The full version of this terminology clash is covered in the Radicals vs Components article.
Kangxi numbers are paper-dictionary cross-reference, not learning material
The table includes Kangxi numbers so you can cross-check against a kanwa-jiten (Japanese character dictionary) or Jisho's radical-number search field. The numbers do not carry pedagogical weight.4 You can ignore the Kangxi column on first pass and consult it only when looking up a kanji whose indexing head is not visually obvious.
See also
- Kanji Radicals (部首): The 214 Kangxi Indexing System
- Radicals vs. Components: Why They Are Not the Same Thing
- Radicals by Position: Hen, Tsukuri, Kanmuri, Ashi, Tare, Nyō, Kamae
- Semantic Components in Kanji (意符): What the Water, Person, and Tree Radicals Tell You About Meaning
- Phonetic Components in Kanji (音符): The Hidden Reading Hint in 75% of Kanji
- How to Look Up a Kanji You Don't Know: Hover, Handwriting, OCR, and Radical Lookup