Radical (Chinese character)

A radical (from Latin radix, meaning "root") is the semantic root (i.e., portion bearing the meaning) of an inflected European word. Early Western sinologists borrowed this term to refer to the semantic component(s) of Chinese character (Hanzi). Later, the term was also borrowed for a second meaning, the 部首 (Pinyin: bùshǒu, Japanese bushu, Korean busu), literally meaning "section header", under which a character is listed in the dictionary.