What does 觉 mean in Chinese?

觉 is a Chinese character with the radical 见.

How do you write 觉?

觉 is written with 9 strokes, starting from the 见 (see) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 觉?

The radical of 觉 is 见 (see, Kangxi radical #147). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 见.

How many strokes does 觉 have?

The Chinese character 觉 has 9 strokes.

What HSK level is 觉?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 觉 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

觉: Chinese Character Details

觉

HSK 1 character 9 strokes Radical: 见 (see)

Quick Answer

觉 is a Chinese character with 9 strokes, radical 见 (see), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 觉 →Animated stroke-order for 觉 →

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

觉 (traditional 覺) has no oracle bone attestation and is a later phono-semantic compound. It combines 見 (to see) as the semantic element with 學 (the top portion, without 子) as the phonetic, suggesting perception or awareness gained through the eyes. The simplified 觉 reduces both 學's top to 龸-like form and 見 to 见.

Form evolution

The full form 覺 appears in seal and clerical scripts as a vertically stacked compound with 學's upper portion above 見. Clerical script flattened the crossed-hand elements at the top into the recognisable 覚 shape used in Japan. The 1956 simplification reduced both components, yielding modern 觉 with six fewer strokes than 覺.

How the meaning evolved

The earliest sense was 'to wake up' or 'to become aware', closely tied to 學 (to learn): one learns by becoming conscious of something. From waking it extended to sensory perception (感觉 feeling) and intellectual realisation (觉悟 awakening, enlightenment). The sleep-related reading jué shifted to jiào in the compound 睡觉 (to sleep), one of the few common characters with two productive readings in daily speech.

Cultural note

觉悟 is a core Buddhist term translating bodhi (enlightenment), and the Buddha's title 佛 is literally 'the awakened one' in Chinese Buddhist texts. Learners should note the two-tone split: 觉得 juéde (to feel/think) versus 睡觉 shuìjiào (to sleep); getting the tone wrong in 睡觉 is a very common beginner error.

Mnemonic

Learning to see under a roof — to feel, to sense

Decomposition

觉=⺍component+冖component+见radical

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	见 (#147: see)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1
Frequency	#277 most common

Example sentences

我十点睡觉。
Wǒ shí diǎn shuìjiào.
I go to sleep at ten.
From 睡觉 (HSK 1)
我觉得很好。
Wǒ juéde hěn hǎo.
I think it's good.
From 觉得 (HSK 1)
我感觉今天很累。
Wǒ gǎnjué jīntiān hěn lèi.
I feel very tired today.
From 感觉 (HSK 4)

Words containing 觉

Word	Pinyin	Meaning	HSK
睡觉	shuìjiào	to sleep	HSK 1
觉得	juéde	to feel	HSK 1
感觉	gǎnjué	feel	HSK 4
自觉	zìjué	Conscious	HSK 5
触觉	chùjué	sense of touch	HSK 7-9
错觉	cuòjué	illusion, misconception	HSK 7-9
发觉	fājué	to detect, to become aware	HSK 7-9