The mouth radical 口

Read kǒu, 3 strokes. It indexes 151 distinct HSK characters.

151HSK characters

3Strokes

#30Radical number

口Glyph

Quick answer

What does the mouth radical (口) mean, and which characters use it?

Mouth (口, kǒu) is Kangxi radical 30, and it usually marks a character whose meaning is connected to mouth. 151 distinct HSK characters are filed under it, the most common being 后, 合, 口. When you meet a new character carrying 口, expect its sense to touch mouth and let the other component hint at the sound.

How this radical works inside a character

Most characters built on 口 follow the meaning-plus-sound pattern: 口 sits on one side to signal the mouth sense, and a second component supplies the approximate pronunciation. So you are rarely memorizing a whole new shape, you are recognizing mouth 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 mouth-radical family gets easier as you go.

All 151 mouth characters 151 characters

#	Char	Pīnyīn	Strokes	HSK 3.0	HSK 2.0
1	后	hòu	6	1	1
2	合	hé	6	2	4
3	口	kǒu	3	1	3
4	可	kě	5	2	2
5	同	tóng	6	1	1
6	名	míng	6	1	1
7	品	pǐn	9	3	4
8	员	yuán	7	3	2
9	向	xiàng	6	2	2
10	台	tái	5	3	4
11	告	gào	7	1	2
12	和	hé	8	1	1
13	号	hào	5	1	2
14	商	shāng	11	1	1
15	听	tīng	7	1	1
16	味	wèi	8	2	4
17	喜	xǐ	12	1	1
18	命	mìng	8	3	4
19	器	qì	16	3	5
20	周	zhōu	8	2	3
21	古	gǔ	5	3	5
22	吃	chī	6	1	1
23	只	zhǐ	5	2	3
24	呼	hū	8	4	5
25	司	sī	5	2	2
26	响	xiǎng	9	2	3
27	各	gè	6	3	4
28	善	shàn	12	3	5
29	吸	xī	6	4	4
30	唱	chàng	11	1	2
31	含	hán	7	4	5
32	售	shòu	11	4	4
33	启	qǐ	7	5	5
34	嘴	zuǐ	16	2	4
35	否	fǒu	7	3	4
36	哪	nǎ	9	1	1
37	右	yòu	5	1	2
38	叹	tàn	5	6	6
39	吉	jí	6	6	6
40	叫	jiào	5	1	1
41	哥	gē	10	1	2
42	吹	chuī	7	2	5
43	吵	chǎo	7	3	4
44	吓	xià	6	5	5
45	呆	dāi	7	5	5
46	咽	yàn	9	7-9	6
47	唤	huàn	10	7-9	·
48	吧	ba	7	1	2
49	喝	hē	12	1	1
50	句	jù	5	2	3
51	哭	kū	10	2	3
52	另	lìng	5	3	4
53	召	zhào	5	4	5
54	叶	yè	5	4	4
55	咳	hāi	9	5	4
56	唯	wéi	11	5	5
57	喷	pēn	12	5	5
58	吊	diào	6	6	6
59	哎	āi	8	7-9	6
60	哀	āi	9	7-9	6
61	哄	hōng	9	7-9	6
62	哗	huā	9	7-9	·
63	喘	chuǎn	12	7-9	6
64	喻	yù	12	7-9	6
65	嘱	zhǔ	15	7-9	5
66	吗	ma	6	1	1
67	咱	zán	9	2	4
68	喂	wèi	12	2	1
69	喊	hǎn	12	2	5
70	哈	hā	9	3	5
71	史	shǐ	5	4	3
72	呀	ya	7	4	4
73	吐	tǔ	6	5	5
74	咬	yǎo	9	5	5
75	吞	tūn	7	6	6
76	啦	la	11	6	6
77	嘉	jiā	14	6	5
78	叨	dāo	5	7-9	6
79	吻	wěn	7	7-9	5
80	呈	chéng	7	7-9	6
81	呛	qiāng	7	7-9	·
82	呵	hē	8	7-9	6
83	咐	fù	8	7-9	5
84	咧	liě	9	7-9	·
85	哑	yǎ	9	7-9	6
86	哨	shào	10	7-9	6
87	哺	bǔ	10	7-9	6
88	唾	tuò	11	7-9	6
89	啸	xiào	11	7-9	6
90	喉	hóu	12	7-9	6
91	喧	xuān	12	7-9	·
92	嘲	cháo	15	7-9	6
93	噪	zào	16	7-9	6
94	嚼	jué	20	7-9	6
95	呢	ne	8	1	1
96	啊	a	10	2	3
97	咖	kā	8	3	2
98	啡	fēi	11	3	2
99	啤	pí	11	3	3
100	咸	xián	9	4	4
101	吨	dūn	7	5	5
102	咨	zī	9	6	5
103	哇	wa	9	6	6
104	哲	zhé	10	6	5
105	嘛	ma	14	6	6
106	叭	bā	5	7-9	6
107	叮	dīng	5	7-9	6
108	叼	diāo	5	7-9	6
109	吁	xū	6	7-9	6
110	吏	lì	6	7-9	·
111	君	jūn	7	7-9	·
112	吩	fēn	7	7-9	6
113	吭	kēng	7	7-9	·
114	吼	hǒu	7	7-9	6
115	呐	nà	7	7-9	·
116	呕	ǒu	7	7-9	6
117	呜	wū	7	7-9	·
118	咏	yǒng	8	7-9	·
119	咙	lóng	8	7-9	6
120	哆	duō	9	7-9	6
121	哦	ó	10	7-9	6
122	哼	hēng	10	7-9	6
123	唇	chún	10	7-9	6
124	唉	āi	10	7-9	5
125	唠	láo	10	7-9	6
126	唬	hǔ	11	7-9	·
127	啃	kěn	11	7-9	6
128	喇	lǎ	12	7-9	6
129	嗅	xiù	13	7-9	6
130	嗓	sǎng	13	7-9	5
131	嗜	shì	13	7-9	·
132	嗦	suō	13	7-9	6
133	嗽	sòu	14	7-9	4
134	嘿	hēi	15	7-9	6
135	嚷	rǎng	20	7-9	5
136	囊	náng	22	7-9	·
137	吝	lìn	7	·	6
138	吟	yín	7	·	6
139	呻	shēn	8	·	6
140	咀	jǔ	8	·	6
141	咋	zǎ	8	·	6
142	哟	yō	9	·	6
143	唆	suō	10	·	6
144	唐	táng	10	·	6
145	啥	shá	11	·	6
146	啬	sè	11	·	6
147	啰	luō	11	·	6
148	嗨	hāi	13	·	6
149	嗯	ǹg	13	·	6
150	嘈	cáo	14	·	6
151	嚏	tì	17	·	5

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 mouth-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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