Lack Radical (欠) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
欠 is the lack radical. It appears in 13 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 欠 mean?
Lack radical · 欠 qiàn · 4 strokes · to owe; to lack; to yawn
It usually appears on 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: 欠
欠 itself: A man 人 yawning ⺈
12 common characters with 欠
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 次 | cì | [measure word indicating number of repetitions or count of actions or events] times | A person 欠 yawning multiple times 冫 |
| 欢 | huān | joyous | |
| 歌 | gē | song | 哥 supplies the sound |
| 款 | kuǎn | money, fund; pattern, style | owe |
| 软 | ruǎn | soft | 欠 supplies the sound |
| 欲 | yù | desire, want, wish; (be) about to | 谷 supplies the sound |
| 吹 | chuī | blow, puff; play (flute, etc.); boast; (lovers) break up, (plan, etc.) fall through | 欠 supplies the sound |
| 欣 | xīn | happy | 斤 supplies the sound |
| 饮 | yǐn | drink | 欠 supplies the sound |
| 欺 | qī | to take unfair advantage of; to deceive; to cheat | 其 supplies the sound |
| 砍 | kǎn | chop, cut | 欠 supplies the sound |
| 歉 | qiàn | to apologize; to regret; deficient | 兼 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
- 日Sun radical · rì46 common characters · sun; day
- 月Moon radical · yuè13 common characters · moon; month; flesh
- 木Wood radical · mù88 common characters · wood; tree
- 止Stop radical · zhǐ9 common characters · to stop; a foot
- 殳Spear radical · shū9 common characters · a spear; a weapon
- 氵Water radical · shuǐ100 common characters · water
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.