Horse Radical (马) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
马 is the horse radical. It appears in 17 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 马 mean?
Horse radical · 马 mǎ · 3 strokes · horse
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.
马 itself: Simplified form of 馬, a horse galloping to the left
12 common characters with 马
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吗 | ma | [question tag] | 马 supplies the sound |
| 妈 | mā | ma, mum | 马 supplies the sound |
| 验 | yàn | to examine | 佥 supplies the sound |
| 驻 | zhù | be stationed | 主 supplies the sound |
| 码 | mǎ | (archaic) agate; (bound form) standard weight used with a balance scal… | 马 supplies the sound |
| 骗 | piàn | take in, cheat | 扁 supplies the sound |
| 骂 | mà | scold, tell off; call names, curse; condemn | 马 supplies the sound |
| 骑 | qí | ride (a bike, horse, etc.); straddle | 奇 supplies the sound |
| 腾 | téng | (bound form) to gallop; to prance; (bound form) to soar; to hover; to… | 朕 supplies the sound |
| 驾 | jià | to harness; to draw (a cart etc); to drive; to pilot; to sail; to ride… | 加 supplies the sound |
| 驶 | shǐ | (of a vehicle, horse etc) to go fast; to speed; (of a vehicle) to run… | 史 supplies the sound |
| 驱 | qū | to expel | 区 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
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