冖 vs 宀 vs 穴

Differentiating between “冖,” ”宀,” and “穴” helps you understand better and learn more easily the characters with these three radicals.

Differences between 冖, 宀 and 穴

1. “冖” relates to “cover”. Characters composed of 冖 have to do with a cover, for examples, 冠,冢,冤,冥,冪,etc. Check out the component for more characters formed by it.

2. “穴” relates to “hole/cave”. characters composed of this radical have to do with a house, cave, or hole, for example, 空、穿、突、穹、穷、窝、窄、窗、窥、窜、究、窖、窑、窿、窒、窟, etc.  Check out the component .

3. ”宀” relates to “roof or house”. Characters composed of this component have to do with a house, for examples, 家、室、宅、宵、宁、牢、宇、宜、安、室、宁、牢、安、守、容、宛、etc. Check out the component  for more characters formed by it.

The number of the characters with “冖” is just about twenty among which just ten more or less are commonly used, while ”宀” and “穴” are quite productive and each of them forms about 100 characters.