Sound Roots & Semantic Radicals Explorer
Decode Chinese characters by their shared sound roots and see how semantic radicals split their meanings across tones.
Notable Phonetic Roots
Ranked dynamically by family size and HSK 1–3 vocabulary utility.
green
command, order, make, cause
blunt; tough
work
square, direction, method, side
short-tailed bird
ancient, old, paleo-
to hand over; to deliver; to pay (money); to turn over; to make friends
sheep; goat
to wish, to long for, bar, Pakistan (abbr.)
jade tablet, square at the base and rounded or pointed at the top, held by the nobility at ceremonies; sundial
and / moreover
measure for dry grain (one-tenth of a sheng) / 100 ml
to observe, to divine
12th earthly branch: 9-11 p.m., 10th solar month (7th November-6th December), year of the Boar; ancient Chinese compass point: 330°
each, every
not; wrong; non-; Africa
one who, -er, person
all
fourth, male adult, cube, surname Ding
still, yet, to value, to esteem
Chinese yuan (currency), first, original, primary
ticket
bag, package, wrap
old variant of 陽|阳[yang2]
at first; suddenly
surname Lou; one of the 28 lunar mansions in Chinese astronomy
dawn; daybreak
odd (number)
humble
surname Shao
can, may, to approve, but
from, by, because of, via
its
name of an ancient tribe
young