The water radical 水

Read shuǐ, 4 strokes. It indexes 160 distinct HSK characters.

160HSK characters

4Strokes

#85Radical number

水Glyph

Quick answer

What does the water radical (水) mean, and which characters use it?

Water (水, shuǐ) is Kangxi radical 85, and it usually marks a character whose meaning is connected to water. 160 distinct HSK characters are filed under it, the most common being 水, 流, 法. When you meet a new character carrying 水, expect its sense to touch water and let the other component hint at the sound.

How this radical works inside a character

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

All 160 water characters 160 characters

#	Char	Pīnyīn	Strokes	HSK 3.0	HSK 2.0
1	水	shuǐ	4	1	1
2	流	liú	10	2	4
3	法	fǎ	8	2	3
4	海	hǎi	10	2	4
5	求	qiú	7	2	3
6	深	shēn	11	3	4
7	演	yǎn	14	3	3
8	清	qīng	11	2	3
9	没	méi	7	1	1
10	活	huó	9	2	4
11	温	wēn	12	2	4
12	游	yóu	12	2	2
13	消	xiāo	10	3	4
14	测	cè	9	4	5
15	治	zhì	8	4	5
16	源	yuán	13	4	5
17	油	yóu	8	2	4
18	满	mǎn	13	2	3
19	沉	chén	7	4	5
20	注	zhù	8	3	3
21	激	jī	16	4	4
22	波	bō	8	6	6
23	洗	xǐ	9	1	2
24	汇	huì	5	4	5
25	浪	làng	10	3	4
26	淡	dàn	11	4	5
27	沿	yán	8	6	6
28	洁	jié	9	6	6
29	泄	xiè	8	7-9	6
30	沙	shā	7	3	4
31	济	jì	9	3	4
32	潮	cháo	15	4	6
33	滑	huá	12	5	5
34	漫	màn	14	5	4
35	洋	yáng	9	6	4
36	混	hùn	11	6	6
37	潜	qián	15	6	6
38	派	pài	9	3	5
39	泪	lèi	8	4	4
40	泉	quán	9	4	5
41	浓	nóng	9	4	5
42	污	wū	6	5	4
43	润	rùn	10	5	4
44	涨	zhǎng	10	5	5
45	泡	pào	8	6	6
46	浮	fú	10	6	6
47	涉	shè	10	6	6
48	液	yè	11	6	5
49	涌	yǒng	10	7-9	6
50	滋	zī	12	7-9	6
51	汽	qì	7	1	2
52	永	yǒng	5	2	4
53	河	hé	8	2	3
54	汁	zhī	5	3	3
55	湿	shī	12	4	4
56	池	chí	6	5	5
57	洞	dòng	9	5	5
58	滚	gǔn	13	5	5
59	漏	lòu	14	5	5
60	泥	ní	8	6	6
61	添	tiān	11	6	6
62	涂	tú	10	7-9	5
63	涵	hán	11	7-9	6
64	汉	hàn	5	1	1
65	漂	piào	14	2	1
66	渐	jiàn	11	4	4
67	汗	hàn	6	5	4
68	泛	fàn	7	5	5
69	泼	pō	8	5	4
70	漠	mò	13	5	5
71	渡	dù	12	6	6
72	港	gǎng	12	6	6
73	浴	yù	10	7-9	6
74	淀	diàn	11	7-9	6
75	淘	táo	11	7-9	6
76	滞	zhì	12	7-9	6
77	溜	liū	13	7-9	6
78	灌	guàn	20	7-9	6
79	渴	kě	12	1	3
80	湖	hú	12	2	6
81	汤	tāng	6	3	4
82	泳	yǒng	8	3	2
83	江	jiāng	6	4	4
84	浅	qiǎn	8	4	5
85	沟	gōu	7	5	5
86	洒	sǎ	9	5	5
87	洪	hóng	9	6	6
88	湾	wān	12	6	6
89	汰	tài	7	7-9	6
90	汹	xiōng	7	7-9	6
91	沐	mù	7	7-9	6
92	沧	cāng	7	7-9	6
93	沫	mò	8	7-9	6
94	沸	fèi	8	7-9	6
95	沾	zhān	8	7-9	6
96	泊	pō	8	7-9	6
97	泣	qì	8	7-9	·
98	泻	xiè	8	7-9	6
99	泽	zé	8	7-9	6
100	津	jīn	9	7-9	6
101	洽	qià	9	7-9	6
102	浏	liú	9	7-9	5
103	浸	jìn	10	7-9	6
104	涛	tāo	10	7-9	6
105	淌	tǎng	11	7-9	·
106	淹	yān	11	7-9	6
107	渔	yú	11	7-9	6
108	渗	shèn	11	7-9	6
109	渣	zhā	12	7-9	6
110	溢	yì	13	7-9	·
111	溪	xī	13	7-9	6
112	滥	làn	13	7-9	6
113	滨	bīn	13	7-9	6
114	滩	tān	13	7-9	5
115	漆	qī	14	7-9	6
116	洲	zhōu	9	·	4
117	澡	zǎo	16	2	3
118	渠	qú	11	6	6
119	滴	dī	14	6	5
120	汛	xùn	6	7-9	·
121	汪	wāng	7	7-9	·
122	沃	wò	7	7-9	6
123	沏	qī	7	7-9	·
124	沛	pèi	7	7-9	6
125	沮	jǔ	8	7-9	6
126	沼	zhǎo	8	7-9	6
127	沽	gū	8	7-9	·
128	泌	mì	8	7-9	6
129	浇	jiāo	9	7-9	5
130	浊	zhuó	9	7-9	6
131	浑	hún	9	7-9	6
132	泰	tài	10	7-9	6
133	浆	jiāng	10	7-9	·
134	浩	hào	10	7-9	·
135	涕	tì	10	7-9	6
136	涝	lào	10	7-9	·
137	涡	wō	10	7-9	·
138	涤	dí	10	7-9	·
139	涮	shuàn	11	7-9	6
140	涯	yá	11	7-9	·
141	淆	xiáo	11	7-9	6
142	淋	lín	11	7-9	6
143	渊	yuān	11	7-9	·
144	渺	miǎo	12	7-9	6
145	溃	kuì	12	7-9	6
146	溅	jiàn	12	7-9	6
147	溉	gài	12	7-9	6
148	溯	sù	13	7-9	·
149	溶	róng	13	7-9	6
150	滔	tāo	13	7-9	6
151	滤	lǜ	13	7-9	6
152	漾	yàng	14	7-9	·
153	潇	xiāo	14	7-9	·
154	潦	liáo	15	7-9	·
155	潭	tán	15	7-9	·
156	澄	chéng	15	7-9	6
157	澜	lán	15	7-9	·
158	瀑	pù	18	7-9	6
159	澈	chè	15	·	6
160	濒	bīn	16	·	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 water-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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