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:

今

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

今 (jīn)

now

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (今)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1jīn

Tone 2hán

Tone 4jìn

Tone 5

Family Characters (14)

Root: 今

今

jīn

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

now

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含

hán

HSK 4

口(mouth)

to contain

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吟

yín

HSK 6

口(mouth)

to chant; to recite; verse; song (often used in titles of classical poems)

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贪

tān

HSK 7

贝(shell)

greedy

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侌

yīn

Expansion

+ 人

old variant of 陰|阴[yin1]

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妗

jìn

Expansion

女(woman)

wife of mother's brother

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岑

cén

Expansion

山(mountain)

surname Cen; small hill

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矜

jīn

Expansion

矛(spear)

to boast, to esteem, to sympathize

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芩

qín

Expansion

艹(plants)

Phragmites japonica

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衾

qīn

Expansion

衣(clothes)

coverlet; quilt

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衿

jīn

Expansion

衤(clothes)

collar; belt

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貪

Expansion

貝(shell)

—

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钤

qián

Expansion

钅(metal)

latch of door; seal

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黔

qián

Expansion

黑(black)

abbr. for Guizhou province 貴州|贵州[Gui4 zhou1]

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