What does 谢 mean in Chinese?

谢 is a Chinese character with the radical 讠.

How do you write 谢?

谢 is written with 12 strokes, starting from the 讠 (speech) 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 谢?

The radical of 谢 is 讠 (speech, Kangxi radical #149). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 话, 说, 认, 读.

How many strokes does 谢 have?

The Chinese character 谢 has 12 strokes.

What HSK level is 谢?

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

谢: Chinese Character Details

谢

HSK 1 character 12 strokes Radical: 讠 (speech)

Quick Answer

谢 is a Chinese character with 12 strokes, radical 讠 (speech), HSK 1 on the new exam.

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

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

谢 (traditional 謝) is a phono-semantic compound with no oracle-bone form. It combines 言 (speech) as the semantic radical with 射 (shè, 'to shoot an arrow') as the phonetic. 射 itself does have an oracle-bone origin showing a hand drawing a bow, but in 谢 it contributes only the pronunciation, not the meaning.

Form evolution

Seal script shows 言 on the left and a tall 射 on the right composed of the bow-and-arrow element 身 (originally the bow) plus 寸 (the hand). Clerical script regularised both components, producing traditional 謝. The simplified form 谢 only reduces 言 to 讠, keeping the 射 component intact, and the bow imagery in 射 has long since been lost to stroke regularisation.

How the meaning evolved

The earliest classical meaning was 'to decline, to refuse, to take leave of', as in 谢客 ('to decline visitors'). From the sense of politely declining came 'to apologise', and from apology came the modern dominant meaning 'to thank', which is attested from the Han dynasty onward. A separate but related sense, 'to wither' (as of flowers: 花谢了), preserves the original notion of 'departure' or 'taking leave'.

Cultural note

The compound 凋谢 ('to wither and fall', of flowers) and the 新陈代谢 ('metabolism', literally 'new replaces old by taking leave') both preserve the ancient meaning of departure rather than thanks. Learners sometimes over-translate 谢谢 as heavily polite; in Mandarin it is the default neutral thanks, and the more formal register uses 多谢 or 感谢.

Mnemonic

Words that shoot gratitude — to thank

Decomposition

谢=讠radical+射component

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	12 strokes
Radical	讠 (#149: speech)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1
Frequency	#406 most common

Example sentences

谢谢你的帮助！
Xièxie nǐ de bāngzhù!
Thank you for your help!
From 谢谢 (HSK 1)
我很感谢你的帮助。
Wǒ hěn gǎnxiè nǐ de bāngzhù.
I'm very thankful for your help.
From 感谢 (HSK 4)
玫瑰花已经凋谢了。
Méigui huā yǐjīng diāoxiè le.
The roses have already withered.
From 凋谢 (HSK 7-9)