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:
侯
Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)
侯 (hóu)
surname Hou; marquis, second of the five orders of ancient Chinese nobility 五等爵位[wu3 deng3 jue2 wei4]
8
Family Characters
2
HSK Words
Tone Fan-out (侯)
How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:
3 Active Tones
Tone 1gōu
Tone 2hóu
Tone 4hòu
Family Characters (8)
Root: 侯侯
hóu
ExpansionPhonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)
surname Hou; marquis, second of the five orders of ancient Chinese nobility 五等爵位[wu3 deng3 jue2 wei4]