禾 (hé) is a Chinese character meaning “standing grain”. It is written from 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 木 (tree; wood), one above the other, and takes 5 strokes.
Build the character for “standing grain”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丿 + 木
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+79BE and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (stroke 1 = 撇, strokes 2-5 = 木); pictograph classification per 说文解字「禾，嘉穀也……象其穗」
Memory aid
A left-falling stroke (丿) leans out over a tree (木): the heavy ear of ripe grain drooping at the top of the stalk.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
5 strokes
In real words
- 禾苗hé miáograin seedlings; young shoots of a cereal crop禾 = hé
Go deeper
All readings
standing grain
standing grain; a cereal crop, especially growing rice
谷类作物的统称，特指生长中的稻子。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 禾苗hé miáograin seedlings; young shoots of a cereal crop禾 = hé
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 禾 mean?
禾 (hé) means standing grain; a cereal crop, especially growing rice.
How do you pronounce 禾?
It is pronounced hé.
What parts is 禾 made of?
丿 (left-falling stroke) and 木 (tree; wood), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+79BE and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (stroke 1 = 撇, strokes 2-5 = 木); pictograph classification per 说文解字「禾，嘉穀也……象其穗」. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 禾 have?
5. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 禾?
禾. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 禾?
Common ones are 禾苗. The reading of 禾 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.