The 214 Radical System is a system of writing Chinese character

Chinese character

Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...

s, with 214 unique radical

Radical (Chinese character)

A Chinese radical is a component of a Chinese character. The term may variously refer to the original semantic element of a character, or to any semantic element, or, loosely, to any element whatever its origin or purpose...

s, which contribute to the meaning of written Chinese.

Origin

This system was developed in the creation of a dictionary, the Zihui

Zihui

The Zìhuì is a Chinese dictionary, edited by Mei Yingzuo during the late Ming Dynasty and published in 1615, the forty-third year of the Ming Wanli Emperor. The work is divided into 14 fascicles and contains a total of 33,179 Chinese characters. It was the first dictionary to introduce the...

. It was also an improvement on a system which previously had had over 500 radicals.

Usage

The 214 Radical System is also a way of listing Chinese ideograms in a dictionary. It is the most widespread method for listing these entries. Since Chinese does not have an alphabet, a standard way to create some kind of standard order for words had to be devised.