Radical 42

小
Radical 42 (U+2F29)
小 (U+5C0F) "small, insignificant"
Pronunciations
Pinyin:	xiǎo
Bopomofo:	ㄒㄧㄠˇ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh:	sheau
Wade–Giles:	hsiao3
Cantonese Yale:	síu
Jyutping:	siu2
Pe̍h-ōe-jī:	siáu
Japanese Kana:	ショウ shō (on'yomi) ちい-さい chii-sai (kun'yomi)
Sino-Korean:	소 so
Names
Chinese name(s):	(Top) 小字頭/小字头 xiǎozìtóu
Japanese name(s):	小/しょう shō (Top) 小頭/しょうがしら shōgashira (Top) 尚頭/なおがしら naogashira
Hangul:	작을 jageul
Stroke order animation
File:小-order.gif

Radical 42 or radical small (小部) meaning "small" or "insignificant" is one of the 31 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals total) composed of three strokes.

In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 41 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.

小 is also the 36th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. Its inversed form ⺌ is the associated indexing component affiliated to the principal indexing component 小.

Evolution

• Oracle bone script character
  Oracle bone script character
• Bronze script character
  Bronze script character
• Large seal script character
  Large seal script character
• Small seal script character
  Small seal script character

Derived characters

Strokes	Characters
+0	小
+1	尐 少
+2	尒 (=爾 -> 爻) 尓 (=爾) 尔SC (=爾) 尕
+3	尖 尗 尘SC (=塵 -> 土) 当SC/JP (=當 -> 田)
+5	尙Kangxi/KO (=尚) 尚
+6	尛 尜 尝SC (=嘗/嚐 -> 口)
+9	尞
+10	尟 尠
+11	尡

Sinogram

The radical is also used as an independent Chinese character. It is one of the kyōiku kanji or kanji taught in elementary school in Japan. It is a first grade kanji.

External links

• Unihan Database - U+5C0F