Dagger Radical (匕) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
匕 is the dagger radical. It appears in 11 of the most common Chinese characters — these 11 are the ones worth learning first, and the worksheet below gives every one of them a pinyin header, a stroke-by-stroke model and blank Tianzige grids to copy into.
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What does 匕 mean?
Dagger radical · 匕 bǐ · 2 strokes · spoon; dagger
It usually appears on the left or the right of the character. The Origin column below shows what each character's parts do — many take their meaning from the radical, some take their sound from the other half.
Shapes: 匕
匕 itself: A spoon
11 common characters with 匕
Ranked by how often they appear in real written Chinese. Every character links to its own page with a stroke-order animation and example words.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 能 | néng | can | A bear's head 厶, body ⺼, and claws 匕 |
| 老 | lǎo | old, veteran | A person bent over with long hair 匕 and a crutch; compare 耂 |
| 比 | bǐ | [used for comparison] than | Two spoons 匕 side-by-side; 匕 also provides the pronunciation |
| 化 | huà | [verb suffix] -ise, -ify | |
| 此 | cǐ | this | 止 supplies the sound |
| 它 | tā | [used for non-human things] it | |
| 死 | sǐ | die | A person kneeling 匕 before a corpse 歹 |
| 北 | běi | north | Two people 匕 sitting back-to-back; phonetic loan for "north" |
| 疑 | yí | (bound form) to doubt; to suspect | An old man walking 疋 while holding 匕 a cane 矢 |
| 旨 | zhǐ | imperial decree; purport; aim; purpose | A spoon 匕 aimed for the mouth 日 |
| 顷 | qǐng | unit of area equal to 100 亩 or 6.67 hectares; a short while; a little… |
Related Radicals
- 几Table radical · jī12 common characters · a small table
- 刂Knife radical · dāo38 common characters · knife, blade
- 力Force radical · lì28 common characters · force, strength
- 十Ten radical · shí33 common characters · ten; a cross shape
- 卜Divination radical · bǔ9 common characters · divination; forecasting
- 厂Cliff radical · hǎn19 common characters · a cliff; a shelter slope
Create Your Own Chinese Worksheet
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