Grass Radical (艹) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
艹 is the grass radical. It appears in 39 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.
Free · No sign-up · US Letter PDF
What does 艹 mean?
Grass radical · 艹 cǎo · 3 strokes · grass; plants
As a radical it is called 草字头 (cǎo zì tóu).
It usually appears across 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: 艹
艹 itself: Simplified form of 艸; grass sprouting
12 common characters with 艹
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 花 | huā | spend | A flower 艹 in bloom 化; 化 also provides the pronunciation |
| 满 | mǎn | full | 㒼 supplies the sound |
| 节 | jié | festival, holiday; section, division; node, joint; critical juncture | Simplified form of 節; sections of bamboo ⺮ |
| 落 | luò | fall, drop; lower; fall behind | 洛 supplies the sound |
| 苦 | kǔ | bitter; hard (times), tough | 古 supplies the sound |
| 营 | yíng | camp; battalion | |
| 艺 | yì | skill; art | 乙 supplies the sound |
| 药 | yào | medicine, drug | 约 supplies the sound |
| 著 | zhù | write | 者 supplies the sound |
| 获 | huò | win, obtain, reap | |
| 菜 | cài | food; dish, course; vegetable | 采 supplies the sound |
| 草 | cǎo | grass; straw | 早 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
- 耳Ear radical · ěr8 common characters · ear
- 舌Tongue radical · shé10 common characters · tongue
- 艮Blunt radical · gèn13 common characters · blunt, stubborn; a mountain pass
- 虫Insect radical · chóng9 common characters · insect, reptile
- 衤Clothes radical · yī20 common characters · clothes
- 讠Speech radical · yán56 common characters · speech, words
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.