Can an individual Kanji character have more than one radical?


I am learning about radicals and their use in forming an individual Kanji
character, but I am wondering if more than one radical can be used in
developing one. Thank you.




Strictly speaking, **each kanji belongs to only one radical**. According to
Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

> ### [部首](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_\(Chinese_characters\))
>
> A Chinese radical (Chinese: 部首; pinyin: bùshǒu; literally: "section header")
> is a graphical component of a Chinese character **under which the character
> is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary.** This component is often a
> semantic indicator (that is, an indicator of the meaning of the character),
> though in some cases the original semantic connection has become obscure,
> owing to changes in character meaning over time. In other cases, the radical
> may be a phonetic component or even an artificially extracted portion of the
> character.

For example, the radical of 男 is 田, not 力. The radical of 音 is 音, not 立 nor 日.
The radical of [嬲](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%AC%B2) is 女, not 男 nor 田
nor 力. Confused? Don't worry, I'm also confused. And that's why, in higher
levels of [kanji-kentei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei), there
are questions [which ask you to point out the correct radical of a
kanji](http://kanken.jitenon.jp/mondai-busyu02z-01.html).

However, ordinary people may use 部首 somewhat loosely, and it may refer to any
recognizable component of a kanji. Modern IMEs have a 部首検索 ("search by
radical") function, and you can usually use whichever component you may
recognize.

[!["search-by-radical"
screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3RQ6U.png)](http://kanken.jitenon.jp/mondai-
busyu02z-01.html)

Knowing 部首 is definitely worthwhile to a certain degree, but don't be too much
bothered by difficult and tricky ones :)




Strictly speaking, **each kanji belongs to only one radical**. According to
Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

> ### [部首](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_\(Chinese_characters\))
>
> A Chinese radical (Chinese: 部首; pinyin: bùshǒu; literally: "section header")
> is a graphical component of a Chinese character **under which the character
> is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary.** This component is often a
> semantic indicator (that is, an indicator of the meaning of the character),
> though in some cases the original semantic connection has become obscure,
> owing to changes in character meaning over time. In other cases, the radical
> may be a phonetic component or even an artificially extracted portion of the
> character.

For example, the radical of 男 is 田, not 力. The radical of 音 is 音, not 立 nor 日.
The radical of [嬲](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%AC%B2) is 女, not 男 nor 田
nor 力. Confused? Don't worry, I'm also confused. And that's why, in higher
levels of [kanji-kentei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei), there
are questions [which ask you to point out the correct radical of a
kanji](http://kanken.jitenon.jp/mondai-busyu02z-01.html).

However, ordinary people may use 部首 somewhat loosely, and it may refer to any
recognizable component of a kanji. Modern IMEs have a 部首検索 ("search by
radical") function, and you can usually use whichever component you may
recognize.

[!["search-by-radical"
screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3RQ6U.png)](http://kanken.jitenon.jp/mondai-
busyu02z-01.html)

Knowing 部首 is definitely worthwhile to a certain degree, but don't be too much
bothered by difficult and tricky ones :)

