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:

其

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

其 (qí)

its

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (其)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1qī

Tone 2qí

Tone 5

Family Characters (17)

Root: 其

其

qí

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

its

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期

qī

HSK 1

月(moon)

variant of 期[qi1]; period

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基

jī

HSK 3

土(earth)

base; foundation

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旗

qí

HSK 6

方(square)

flag; variant of 旗[qi2]

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欺

qī

HSK 6

欠(yawn)

to deceive / to cheat / to bully

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棋

qí

HSK 7

木(tree)

variant of 棋[qi2]

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淇

qí

Expansion

氵(water)

name of a river

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琪

qí

Expansion

王(jade)

(literary) fine jade

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祺

qí

Expansion

礻(spirit)

(literary) good luck; good fortune; (used in formal letter-ending phrases and in personal names)

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箕

jī

Expansion

⺮(bamboo)

winnow basket

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綦

qí

Expansion

糸(silk)

dark gray; superlative

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萁

qí

Expansion

艹(plants)

stalks of pulse

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蜞

qí

Expansion

虫(insect)

used in 蟛蜞[peng2 qi2]

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骐

qí

Expansion

马(horse)

(literary) black horse

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鯕

Expansion

魚(fish)

—

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鲯

qí

Expansion

鱼(fish)

used in 鯕鰍|鲯鳅[qi2 qiu1]

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麒

qí

Expansion

鹿(deer)

used in 麒麟 (qílín, Qilin/mythical Chinese unicorn)

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