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:
冥
4
Family Characters
0
HSK Words
Tone Fan-out (冥)
How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:
2 Active Tones
Tone 2míng
Tone 4mì
Family Characters (4)
Root: 冥冥
míng
ExpansionPhonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)
old variant of 冥[ming2]
螟
míng
Expansionboring insect; snout moth's larva (Aphomia gullaris or Plodia interpuncuella or Heliothus armigera etc), major agricultural pest