The silk radical 糸

Read mì, 6 strokes. Written 纟 as a component in modern simplified characters. It indexes 76 distinct HSK characters.

76HSK characters

6Strokes

#120Radical number

纟Written form

Quick answer

What does the silk radical (糸) mean, and which characters use it?

Silk (糸, mì) is Kangxi radical 120, and it usually marks a character whose meaning is connected to silk. 76 distinct HSK characters are filed under it, the most common being 经, 结, 线. When you meet a new character carrying 纟, expect its sense to touch silk and let the other component hint at the sound.

How this radical works inside a character

Most characters built on 糸 follow the meaning-plus-sound pattern: 糸 sits on one side to signal the silk sense, and a second component supplies the approximate pronunciation. So you are rarely memorizing a whole new shape, you are recognizing silk plus a part you may already read. The list below is in corpus-frequency order, so the characters you will actually meet first are at the top: learn them in this order and the rest of the silk-radical family gets easier as you go.

All 76 silk characters 76 characters

#	Char	Pīnyīn	Strokes	HSK 3.0	HSK 2.0
1	经	jīng	8	2	2
2	结	jié	9	2	3
3	线	xiàn	8	3	5
4	约	yuē	6	3	4
5	红	hóng	6	2	2
6	级	jí	6	2	3
7	绝	jué	9	3	4
8	紧	jǐn	10	3	4
9	缩	suō	14	4	5
10	素	sù	10	6	5
11	终	zhōng	8	3	3
12	细	xì	8	4	4
13	编	biān	12	4	5
14	组	zǔ	8	2	4
15	纪	jì	6	3	4
16	续	xù	11	3	4
17	索	suǒ	10	5	6
18	纳	nà	7	6	6
19	练	liàn	8	2	3
20	继	jì	10	3	4
21	统	tǒng	9	4	5
22	系	xì	7	1	1
23	维	wéi	11	4	5
24	绿	lǜ	11	2	3
25	缓	huǎn	12	4	5
26	纵	zòng	7	6	6
27	给	gěi	9	1	2
28	繁	fán	17	5	5
29	缘	yuán	12	6	5
30	累	lèi	11	1	2
31	纯	chún	7	4	5
32	绕	rào	9	5	5
33	纸	zhǐ	7	2	2
34	络	luò	9	4	6
35	纲	gāng	7	5	5
36	织	zhī	8	5	4
37	纽	niǔ	7	7-9	6
38	绑	bǎng	9	7-9	6
39	缝	fèng	13	7-9	6
40	纷	fēn	7	4	5
41	综	zōng	11	4	5
42	纠	jiū	5	6	6
43	绘	huì	9	6	6
44	纹	wén	7	7-9	6
45	绣	xiù	10	7-9	6
46	缠	chán	13	7-9	6
47	缴	jiǎo	16	7-9	6
48	绩	jì	11	2	3
49	绪	xù	11	6	5
50	纤	xiān	6	7-9	6
51	纬	wěi	7	7-9	6
52	纱	shā	7	7-9	·
53	绎	yì	8	7-9	6
54	紊	wěn	10	7-9	6
55	绰	chuò	11	7-9	·
56	绵	mián	11	7-9	·
57	绷	bēng	11	7-9	·
58	缆	lǎn	12	7-9	·
59	绍	shào	8	1	2
60	绒	róng	9	5	6
61	紫	zǐ	12	5	5
62	纺	fǎng	7	7-9	6
63	绅	shēn	8	7-9	6
64	绞	jiǎo	9	7-9	·
65	绯	fēi	11	7-9	·
66	绳	shéng	11	7-9	5
67	绸	chóu	11	7-9	5
68	绽	zhàn	11	7-9	·
69	缀	zhuì	11	7-9	6
70	絮	xù	12	7-9	·
71	缅	miǎn	12	7-9	·
72	缉	jī	12	7-9	·
73	缔	dì	12	7-9	6
74	缕	lǚ	12	7-9	·
75	缚	fù	13	7-9	6
76	缤	bīn	13	7-9	·

tone 1 tone 2 tone 3 tone 4 neutral Order = corpus frequency, most common first · · = not in that scheme

Strokes and radical assignment come from the Unicode Han Database (Unicode 17.0.0, field kRSUnicode); the HSK levels and the frequency order are computed from the shipped HSK word lists. A small number of characters have a contested radical across dictionaries; the primary Unicode analysis is used throughout. Last verified 2026-07-24. See the full radical explorer or the characters-per-level reference.

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Drill the silk-radical characters on a schedule

This list is free to browse and self-test here, always. If you would rather practice recognizing these characters on your phone with spaced repetition, we recommend Wordbrush, our one disclosed pick. Never a gate on this page.

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