The hand radical 手

Read shǒu, 4 strokes. It indexes 185 distinct HSK characters.

185HSK characters

4Strokes

#64Radical number

手Glyph

Quick answer

What does the hand radical (手) mean, and which characters use it?

Hand (手, shǒu) is Kangxi radical 64, and it usually marks a character whose meaning is connected to hand. 185 distinct HSK characters are filed under it, the most common being 手, 打, 接. When you meet a new character carrying 手, expect its sense to touch hand and let the other component hint at the sound.

How this radical works inside a character

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

All 185 hand characters 185 characters

#	Char	Pīnyīn	Strokes	HSK 3.0	HSK 2.0
1	手	shǒu	4	1	2
2	打	dǎ	5	1	1
3	接	jiē	11	2	3
4	报	bào	7	2	2
5	提	tí	12	2	3
6	指	zhǐ	9	3	4
7	推	tuī	11	2	4
8	护	hù	7	2	3
9	折	zhé	7	4	4
10	招	zhāo	8	4	4
11	持	chí	9	3	4
12	投	tóu	7	4	5
13	换	huàn	10	2	3
14	据	jù	11	3	3
15	排	pái	11	2	4
16	技	jì	7	3	4
17	扬	yáng	6	4	4
18	担	dān	8	4	3
19	托	tuō	6	5	5
20	探	tàn	11	6	6
21	播	bō	15	3	4
22	承	chéng	8	4	5
23	才	cái	3	2	3
24	扣	kòu	6	6	6
25	批	pī	7	3	4
26	摇	yáo	13	4	5
27	操	cāo	16	4	5
28	拜	bài	9	5	5
29	损	sǔn	10	5	5
30	抗	kàng	7	6	5
31	抵	dǐ	8	6	6
32	拉	lā	8	2	4
33	掉	diào	11	2	4
34	把	bǎ	7	3	3
35	拍	pāi	8	3	5
36	挂	guà	9	3	4
37	按	àn	9	3	4
38	扩	kuò	6	4	4
39	抽	chōu	8	4	4
40	挑	tiāo	9	4	5
41	摆	bǎi	13	4	5
42	执	zhí	6	5	5
43	拔	bá	8	5	6
44	控	kòng	11	5	5
45	摄	shè	13	5	5
46	拿	ná	10	1	3
47	扫	sǎo	6	4	3
48	抱	bào	8	4	4
49	搜	sōu	12	5	6
50	摩	mó	15	5	5
51	扎	zhā	4	6	6
52	捐	juān	10	6	5
53	找	zhǎo	7	1	2
54	授	shòu	11	4	4
55	措	cuò	11	4	5
56	描	miáo	11	4	5
57	扰	rǎo	7	5	4
58	抢	qiǎng	7	5	5
59	拥	yōng	8	5	5
60	掌	zhǎng	12	5	4
61	扭	niǔ	7	6	6
62	拖	tuō	8	6	6
63	拨	bō	8	6	6
64	挨	āi	10	6	6
65	揭	jiē	12	6	6
66	搭	dā	12	6	6
67	撤	chè	15	6	6
68	抑	yì	7	7-9	6
69	抚	fǔ	7	7-9	6
70	握	wò	12	3	4
71	括	kuò	9	4	4
72	挥	huī	9	4	5
73	摸	mō	13	4	5
74	扮	bàn	7	5	4
75	押	yā	8	5	6
76	挡	dǎng	9	5	5
77	振	zhèn	10	5	5
78	插	chā	12	5	5
79	搞	gǎo	13	5	5
80	撞	zhuàng	15	5	4
81	扑	pū	5	6	6
82	捕	bǔ	10	6	6
83	援	yuán	12	6	6
84	拟	nǐ	7	7-9	6
85	揽	lǎn	12	7-9	·
86	搁	gē	12	7-9	6
87	挺	tǐng	9	2	4
88	抓	zhuā	7	3	5
89	搬	bān	13	3	3
90	抄	chāo	7	4	5
91	拆	chāi	8	5	5
92	拼	pīn	9	5	6
93	挣	zhēng	9	5	5
94	挤	jǐ	9	5	5
95	摔	shuāi	14	5	5
96	拐	guǎi	8	6	5
97	挖	wā	9	6	6
98	捉	zhuō	10	6	6
99	抖	dǒu	7	7-9	5
100	抛	pāo	7	7-9	6
101	抹	mǒ	8	7-9	6
102	拓	tà	8	7-9	6
103	拳	quán	10	7-9	5
104	挽	wǎn	10	7-9	6
105	捧	pěng	11	7-9	6
106	捷	jié	11	7-9	6
107	掩	yǎn	11	7-9	6
108	揣	chuāi	12	7-9	·
109	搅	jiǎo	12	7-9	6
110	搏	bó	13	7-9	6
111	攀	pān	19	7-9	6
112	择	zé	8	4	3
113	擦	cā	17	4	4
114	扶	fú	7	5	5
115	拒	jù	7	5	4
116	披	pī	8	5	5
117	抬	tái	8	5	4
118	拾	shí	9	5	4
119	摘	zhāi	14	5	5
120	掏	tāo	11	6	6
121	撑	chēng	15	6	6
122	扯	chě	7	7-9	6
123	抒	shū	7	7-9	6
124	拌	bàn	8	7-9	6
125	拘	jū	8	7-9	6
126	拙	zhuō	8	7-9	6
127	拢	lǒng	8	7-9	6
128	拦	lán	8	7-9	5
129	挠	náo	9	7-9	6
130	挚	zhì	10	7-9	6
131	挫	cuò	10	7-9	6
132	捆	kǔn	10	7-9	6
133	捞	lāo	10	7-9	6
134	掀	xiān	11	7-9	6
135	掘	jué	11	7-9	6
136	携	xié	13	7-9	6
137	摊	tān	13	7-9	6
138	摧	cuī	14	7-9	6
139	撒	sā	15	7-9	6
140	擅	shàn	16	7-9	6
141	扔	rēng	5	5	4
142	捡	jiǎn	10	6	5
143	扒	bā	5	7-9	6
144	扛	káng	6	7-9	6
145	扳	bān	7	7-9	·
146	抠	kōu	7	7-9	·
147	抡	lūn	7	7-9	·
148	抨	pēng	8	7-9	·
149	拄	zhǔ	8	7-9	6
150	拎	līn	8	7-9	·
151	拣	jiǎn	8	7-9	6
152	拧	níng	8	7-9	6
153	拯	zhěng	9	7-9	·
154	拱	gǒng	9	7-9	·
155	拴	shuān	9	7-9	·
156	拽	zhuài	9	7-9	6
157	挎	kuà	9	7-9	6
158	挟	xié	9	7-9	·
159	挪	nuó	9	7-9	6
160	捂	wǔ	10	7-9	·
161	捅	tǒng	10	7-9	·
162	捍	hàn	10	7-9	6
163	捎	shāo	10	7-9	6
164	捏	niē	10	7-9	6
165	捣	dǎo	10	7-9	6
166	捶	chuí	11	7-9	·
167	掐	qiā	11	7-9	6
168	掠	lüè	11	7-9	6
169	掺	chān	11	7-9	·
170	掰	bāi	12	7-9	6
171	揉	róu	12	7-9	6
172	揍	zòu	12	7-9	6
173	揪	jiū	12	7-9	·
174	搀	chān	12	7-9	6
175	搂	lǒu	12	7-9	6
176	搓	cuō	12	7-9	6
177	撇	piē	14	7-9	·
178	撕	sī	15	7-9	5
179	撬	qiào	15	7-9	·
180	撰	zhuàn	15	7-9	·
181	撼	hàn	16	7-9	·
182	擎	qíng	16	7-9	6
183	攒	zǎn	19	7-9	6
184	攘	rǎng	20	7-9	·
185	掷	zhì	11	·	6

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 hand-radical characters on a schedule

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