Phonetic Families & Components

Sound Roots & Semantic Radicals Explorer

Decode Chinese characters by their shared sound roots and see how semantic radicals split their meanings across tones.

Popular Roots:

主

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

主 (zhǔ)

master

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (主)

How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:

3 Active Tones

Tone 3zhǔ

Tone 4zhù

Tone 5

Family Characters (10)

Root: 主

主

zhǔ

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

master

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注

zhù

HSK 3

氵(water)

to annotate, register, or pour

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柱

zhù

HSK 6

木(tree)

pillar

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驻

zhù

HSK 6

马(horse)

to halt, stay, or be stationed

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拄

zhǔ

HSK 7

扌(hand)

to lean on; to prop on

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疰

Expansion

疒(sickness)

—

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蛀

zhù

Expansion

虫(insect)

termite; to bore (of insects)

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註

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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駐

Expansion

馬(horse)

—

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麈

zhǔ

Expansion

鹿(deer)

leader of herd; stag

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