Chinese Stroke Order

Look up stroke count, radical, character structure and the full stroke order for up to ten common Chinese characters

Up to 10 characters. Common characters only; rare characters may not be included.

Stroke data comes from the open-source cnchar dataset and follows the mainland China standard. Stroke names and order can differ in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japanese kanji references. This page shows the stroke sequence as numbered steps, not a traced glyph outline.

Frequently asked questions

Why does stroke order matter?

Writing characters in the standard order keeps them balanced and legible, and makes handwriting faster. It also helps you look characters up in paper dictionaries and learn new characters from their components.

Why is my character not found?

The table covers around 3,600 common characters. Rare characters, variant forms and some names are not included. Try the standard simplified form, or check a dedicated dictionary for rare characters.

Are the stroke names official?

They follow the common five basic stroke families — horizontal, vertical, left-falling, dot and turn — plus combined strokes. Terminology varies between mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, so treat the names as learning aids rather than legal standards.

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