Eye Radical (目) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
目 is the eye radical. It appears in 20 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 目 mean?
Eye radical · 目 mù · 5 strokes · eye
It usually appears on the left, or at the bottom. 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: 目
目 itself: An eye drawn on its side
12 common characters with 目
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 自 | zì | from | A nose; in China, people refer to themselves by pointing to their noses |
| 着 | zhe | [aspect marker indicating a durative or ongoing situation] | |
| 看 | kàn | look, view; look after | Shielding one's eyes 目 with a hand 手 to look to the distance |
| 相 | xiāng | each other | To stare 目 at a tree 木, meaning to observe |
| 直 | zhí | straight, directly; keep (doing something), continuously | To look someone in the eye 目 |
| 眼 | yǎn | eye | 艮 supplies the sound |
| 具 | jù | possess, have | Two hands 八 writing on a tablet 目 |
| 省 | shěng | province | 少 supplies the sound |
| 睡 | shuì | sleep | 垂 supplies the sound |
| 睛 | jīng | eye; eyeball | 青 supplies the sound |
| 泪 | lèi | tear | Water 氵 from the eyes 目 |
| 盾 | dùn | shield; (currency) Vietnamese dong; currency unit of several countries… | An eye 目 peering from behind a shield 厂 |
Related Radicals
- 白White radical · bái11 common characters · white
- 皮Skin radical · pí9 common characters · skin, hide
- 皿Dish radical · mǐn12 common characters · dish, vessel
- 石Stone radical · shí19 common characters · stone
- 礻Spirit radical · shì17 common characters · an altar; spirits; worship
- 禾Grain radical · hé27 common characters · grain; a rice plant
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.