The 50 most common components

Here we present the 50 components which are used most frequently in the 2136 most common kanji (the Jōyō Kanji), prioritized by frequency (i.e., the most useful / common components are first). They appear in the actual form in which they are used - so components which have multiple variants appear multiple times in the component list (although this only occurs once in the top 50).
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Contents
1. Introduction to components
Every Japanese kanji is made of one or more reusable 'components', which (typically) have the same meaning whenever they appear. This enables you to learn a kanji by thinking of it as a collection of components. For more on this, see our introduction to kanji components.
Learning the most common components will greatly accelerate your ability to master the kanji. Luckily, Kanshudo makes this very easy, because every kanji is presented in cascading kanji™ format, with each component shown below the main kanji. This means that you are constantly encountering the most common components, which quickly reinforces your memory of them.
The most frequently occurring component is 氵, an abbreviated form of 水, which occurs in 114 of the most common kanji! In other words, just learning that one component will give you a head start at learning 114 kanji, which is over 5% of the kanji in daily use. Even the 50th most common component, 巾, which means 'turban', occurs 16 times.
2. The 50 most common components
1-5
water
mouth
tree
man
hand
6-10
say
thread
grass
sun
ground
11-15
heart
move
roof
woman / female
body part
16-20
shellfish
one
gold
grain
hill
21-25
bamboo
sword
heart
strike
ten
26-30
rice field
mountain
little bird
广 stony cliff
page
31-35
whereupon
effort
inch
car
fire
36-40
eye
step
big
again
rice
41-45
king
stand
group
cover / covered
corpse
46-50
horse
stone
𠂉 man
net
turban
3. Further study - the 214 standard radicals and more components
Alas, 50 components is not the end of the story ... In fact, there are a few hundred, although some of them are used very infrequently. For further study, see our three comprehensive lists of components:
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