When used as a left component, the radical character transforms into 月 in Simplified Chinese and Japanese or ⺼ in modern Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

肉 is also the 132nd indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China.

In the Kangxi Dictionary, 月 which means the "moon" has its two horizontal strokes' right ends detached from the frame, while those in 月 which means "meat" are connected to the frame.

In modern Japanese and Simplified Chinese, this difference no longer exists.

In modern Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the two horizontal strokes in 月 meaning "meat" are altered to a dot and an upward horizontal stroke, a change that also applies to printing typefaces despite it historically only being used as a handwriting variant.