矢 — the “arrow” radical

Radical #111 5 strokes

The arrow radical. 4 of the JLPT kanji on this site are built with it — recognizing the piece makes them far easier to remember.

Kanji using the 矢 radical (4)

知know, wisdom 短short, brevity 矢dart, arrow 矯rectify, straighten

← 矛 spear 石 stone →

Radicals (部首, bushu) are the shared building blocks of kanji, used to sort them in every dictionary. Learn the common ones and new kanji stop looking random.