The tree radical 木

Read mù, 4 strokes. It indexes 120 distinct HSK characters.

120HSK characters

4Strokes

#75Radical number

木Glyph

Quick answer

What does the tree radical (木) mean, and which characters use it?

Tree (木, mù) is Kangxi radical 75, and it usually marks a character whose meaning is connected to tree. 120 distinct HSK characters are filed under it, the most common being 来, 机, 本. When you meet a new character carrying 木, expect its sense to touch tree and let the other component hint at the sound.

How this radical works inside a character

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

All 120 tree characters 120 characters

#	Char	Pīnyīn	Strokes	HSK 3.0	HSK 2.0
1	来	lái	7	1	1
2	机	jī	6	1	1
3	本	běn	5	1	1
4	样	yàng	10	1	1
5	标	biāo	9	3	4
6	条	tiáo	7	1	3
7	果	guǒ	8	1	1
8	树	shù	9	1	3
9	极	jí	7	3	3
10	格	gé	10	3	4
11	楼	lóu	13	1	3
12	查	chá	9	2	3
13	权	quán	6	4	5
14	模	mó	14	4	5
15	术	shù	5	3	4
16	材	cái	7	3	4
17	根	gēn	10	3	3
18	未	wèi	5	4	5
19	核	hé	10	5	5
20	杂	zá	6	3	4
21	架	jià	9	3	5
22	概	gài	13	3	4
23	案	àn	10	4	4
24	板	bǎn	8	2	3
25	构	gòu	8	4	5
26	杀	shā	6	5	5
27	检	jiǎn	11	2	3
28	木	mù	4	3	5
29	松	sōng	8	4	4
30	林	lín	8	4	4
31	染	rǎn	9	5	4
32	杯	bēi	8	1	1
33	末	mò	5	2	3
34	束	shù	7	3	3
35	梦	mèng	11	4	4
36	梯	tī	11	4	3
37	档	dàng	10	6	5
38	横	héng	15	6	5
39	朴	pǔ	6	7-9	5
40	校	xiào	10	1	1
41	村	cūn	7	3	4
42	桥	qiáo	10	3	4
43	枪	qiāng	8	5	5
44	柜	guì	8	5	5
45	桃	táo	10	5	5
46	栏	lán	9	6	6
47	棋	qí	12	7-9	5
48	棍	gùn	12	7-9	6
49	桌	zhuō	10	1	1
50	椅	yǐ	12	2	1
51	植	zhí	12	4	4
52	棒	bàng	12	5	5
53	杆	gān	7	6	6
54	梁	liáng	11	6	6
55	榜	bǎng	14	6	6
56	柔	róu	9	7-9	5
57	桑	sāng	10	7-9	6
58	桶	tǒng	11	7-9	4
59	梳	shū	11	7-9	5
60	槽	cáo	15	7-9	·
61	李	lǐ	7	3	3
62	朵	duǒ	6	5	3
63	析	xī	8	5	5
64	柿	shì	9	5	4
65	柴	chái	10	5	5
66	枝	zhī	8	6	6
67	柱	zhù	9	6	6
68	械	xiè	11	6	6
69	棉	mián	12	6	5
70	杖	zhàng	7	7-9	6
71	杠	gàng	7	7-9	6
72	枯	kū	9	7-9	6
73	栋	dòng	9	7-9	6
74	株	zhū	10	7-9	6
75	栽	zāi	10	7-9	6
76	框	kuàng	10	7-9	6
77	桨	jiǎng	10	7-9	6
78	梢	shāo	11	7-9	6
79	棘	jí	12	7-9	·
80	榨	zhà	14	7-9	6
81	橡	xiàng	15	7-9	5
82	橙	chéng	16	7-9	6
83	楚	chǔ	13	2	3
84	某	mǒu	9	3	5
85	棵	kē	12	4	4
86	梨	lí	11	5	5
87	杰	jié	8	6	6
88	梅	méi	11	6	·
89	朱	zhū	6	7-9	·
90	朽	xiǔ	6	7-9	6
91	杜	dù	7	7-9	6
92	杨	yáng	7	7-9	·
93	枉	wǎng	8	7-9	6
94	枕	zhěn	8	7-9	5
95	枚	méi	8	7-9	6
96	枢	shū	8	7-9	·
97	枣	zǎo	8	7-9	·
98	柄	bǐng	9	7-9	·
99	柏	bǎi	9	7-9	·
100	柬	jiǎn	9	7-9	6
101	柳	liǔ	9	7-9	·
102	栓	shuān	10	7-9	·
103	栖	qī	10	7-9	·
104	桂	guì	10	7-9	·
105	桩	zhuāng	10	7-9	·
106	棚	péng	12	7-9	·
107	棱	léng	12	7-9	·
108	棺	guān	12	7-9	·
109	椒	jiāo	12	7-9	5
110	椰	yē	12	7-9	·
111	楷	kǎi	13	7-9	·
112	槐	huái	13	7-9	·
113	槛	kǎn	14	7-9	·
114	橘	jú	16	7-9	·
115	橱	chú	16	7-9	·
116	桔	jié	10	·	5
117	棕	zōng	12	·	6
118	森	sēn	12	·	4
119	椎	zhuī	12	·	6
120	椭	tuǒ	12	·	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.

Recommended app · disclosed

Drill the tree-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.

See why