忄

shùxīn

radical variant #72,470

Meanings

1 vertical heart radical (variant of 心)
2 left form of the heart radical, Kangxi #61

Tips

usage

Three strokes on the left of a character, that's the inner-life signal. 忄 marks emotion, mood, and mental state in characters where the phonetic sits to the right. The shape is the heart radical 心 stood on its side and slimmed for a side-by-side compound; it's never written on its own.

history

忄 is the calligraphic compression of 心. When 心 needs to share a square with another component to the right, scribes rotate the four-stroke heart into a tight vertical column: a downstroke flanked by two short ticks. The radical's identity as 'heart' is preserved, but the silhouette is unmistakably side-positional.

usage

Strong feeling/mind cue: 忙 (busy), 怕 (afraid), 快 (fast/happy), 慢 (slow), 情 (feeling), 怀 (cherish), 性 (nature/disposition).

Radical

Heart Kangxi #61

One of the most productive emotional radicals in the script. Strong clue that a character involves feeling, intention, or mental state: 想 (think), 念 (miss), 忘 (forget), 怕 (fear), 意 (intent), 慢 (slow). Appears as 忄 on the left of characters and as ⺗ underneath.

Forms

心 xīn

Default 63 characters

忄 shùxīn

Left 110 characters

⺗ héngxīn

Bottom 3 characters

Used in

View all 110 →

Showing 6 of 110 · left form 忄 of 心

快 kuài

fast · quick

忙 máng

busy

懂 dǒng

to understand

怪 guài

strange; odd · monster; to blame

性 xìng

nature; character; disposition · gender; sex

怕 pà

to be afraid · to fear

Stroke Order