Kangxi Radical Cover

It marks the cover-shaped part of a character in a dictionary.

For Han characters—Chinese-derived characters used across East Asian writing—this radical acts as a filing clue. It can help locate a character, but it is not a complete definition.

Is ⼍ the same as 冖?

No; they are related but distinct Unicode characters.

⼍ is the dedicated Kangxi radical-block form; 冖 is the related Han character used as the cover component in ordinary text. Use the form that belongs to the character or index you are writing.

Where did the cover radical come from?

It evolved from an old drawing of cloth used as a cover.

The sign appears on bronze inscriptions from the Western Zhou, an early Chinese dynasty, around 1000 BCE, drawn as cloth laid over something. Around 100 CE, the early Chinese character dictionary Shuowen Jiezi glossed 冖 as “to cover” and described it as a horizontal stroke with another hanging down.

In the 18th century, the Kangxi dictionary, a Chinese character dictionary, organized characters under 214 radicals and then by remaining strokes. Unicode keeps ⼍ as a separate radical-index character. Chinese references call 冖 mì (Mandarin pinyin, roughly “mee” with a falling tone), 秃宝盖 in simplified Chinese, or 禿寶蓋 in traditional Chinese; Japanese uses わかんむり for the same cover component.