Ten Radical (十) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
十 is the ten radical. It appears in 33 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 十 mean?
Ten radical · 十 shí · 2 strokes · ten; a cross shape
It usually appears anywhere in 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: 十
12 common characters with 十
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 什 | shén | what | A file of ten 十 people 亻 |
| 干 | gān | work, do (a job) | A club or axe |
| 车 | chē | car, vehicle; cart | Simplified form of 車, a cart with two wheels, seen from above |
| 直 | zhí | straight, directly; keep (doing something), continuously | To look someone in the eye 目 |
| 计 | jì | count, calculate, number; haggle over | 十 supplies the sound |
| 早 | zǎo | early | The first rays 十 of the sun 日 |
| 千 | qiān | 1,000 | |
| 质 | zhì | quality; substance | 十 supplies the sound |
| 支 | zhī | [measure word used for long and inflexible objects such as pens, arrows, cigarettes]; [measure word for troops and fleets]; [measure word for songs and melodies]; [measure word for brightness of electric bulbs, equivalent of watt] | A hand 又 holding a branch 十 for support |
| 土 | tǔ | earth, soil | A lump of clay on a potter's wheel |
| 古 | gǔ | ancient, old | Words passing through ten 十 mouths 口 |
| 章 | zhāng | chapter | The ten 十 movements of a piece of music 音 |
Related Radicals
- 刂Knife radical · dāo38 common characters · knife, blade
- 力Force radical · lì28 common characters · force, strength
- 匕Dagger radical · bǐ11 common characters · spoon; dagger
- 卜Divination radical · bǔ9 common characters · divination; forecasting
- 厂Cliff radical · hǎn19 common characters · a cliff; a shelter slope
- 厶Private radical · sī17 common characters · private; personal
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.