Dot Radical (丶) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
丶 is the dot radical. It appears in 22 of the most common Chinese characters — these 12 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 丶 mean?
Dot radical · 丶 zhǔ · 1 strokes · a single dot
It usually appears at the top 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: 丶
12 common characters with 丶
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 为 | wèi | [introducing purpose, reason, beneficiary, etc.] for, because of | |
| 之 | zhī | [archaic equivalent of structural particle 的] | A foot meaning "to follow"; cursive version of 止 |
| 主 | zhǔ | main, primary, principal | A lamp 王 with a flame 丶 |
| 门 | mén | door, gate | An open doorway or gate |
| 太 | tài | too, excessively; very | A giant 大 with a normal-sized man 丶 for scale |
| 义 | yì | meaning, sense; justice, righteousness | 乂 supplies the sound |
| 术 | shù | way, practice; (surgical) operation | |
| 广 | guǎng | wide, broad, extensive | A lean-to 厂, suggesting a building |
| 户 | hù | [measure word for households] | Simplified form of 戶; a door swinging on its hinge |
| 压 | yā | press | Soil 土 crushed under pressure 厂 |
| 良 | liáng | good | |
| 尤 | yóu | outstanding; particularly, especially; a fault; to express discontentm… | 尢 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
- 一One radical · yī72 common characters · one; the horizontal stroke
- 丨Line radical · gǔn17 common characters · a vertical line
- 丿Slash radical · piě24 common characters · a downward-left slash
- 乚Second radical · yǐ18 common characters · second (of the heavenly stems); a swallow in flight
- 二Two radical · èr17 common characters · two; a pair of horizontal lines
Create Your Own Chinese Worksheet
The download above is fixed; the generator is not. Turn any character list, sentence or textbook section into a printable worksheet — grid style, paper size and header are yours to pick.