星 is a Chinese character with 9 strokes, radical 日 (sun), HSK 1 on the new exam.
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
Early oracle-bone forms of 星 show three or more small circles or dots, each a simple picture of a star in the sky. By the bronze and seal stages, the phonetic 生 (shēng) was added underneath to fix the pronunciation, making 星 a classic phono-semantic compound: 日 (sun, standing in for 'luminous body') over 生. The top element, originally 晶 (three 日), was reduced to a single 日 for writing economy.
Form evolution
Oracle-bone and bronze forms cluster several circular 'star' shapes together, sometimes with 生 added as a phonetic. Seal script fixed the now-familiar arrangement of 日 over 生. Clerical script squared off the circles into the rectangular 日 and straightened the strokes of 生, and 楷书 inherits this structure unchanged.
How the meaning evolved
The meaning has stayed remarkably stable: 星 has always referred to stars and, by extension, other point-like lights in the sky. Later extensions cover anything scattered in a starlike pattern (零星 scattered, 星火 sparks) and, under modern influence, celebrities (明星, 球星). The astronomical core is unchanged from the Shang oracle bones.
Cultural note
The full three-sun character 晶 (bright, crystal) is 星's older sibling; it preserves the original triple-dot depiction of a starry sky before 生 was added as a phonetic. Calligraphers sometimes write 星 with the 日 deliberately small to echo this ancestry.
Mnemonic
The sun gives birth to light — a star
Decomposition
Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.
Basic info
| Stroke count | 9 strokes |
| Radical | 日 (#72: sun) |
| New HSK exam | Recognise at HSK 1 |
| Frequency | #1038 most common |
Example sentences
Words containing 星
Related characters
On the new HSK 1 exam
Studying for HSK 1? Keep 星 with the rest of your level.
HSK Lord schedules your reviews so each character comes back right before you would forget it. Free to start, and it picks up where you are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Appears in these articles
Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.