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:

冬

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

冬 (dōng)

winter

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (冬)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1dōng

Tone 2téng

Tone 5

Family Characters (9)

Root: 冬

冬

dōng

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

winter

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疼

téng

HSK 2

疒(sickness)

hurts / sore / to love dearly

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终

zhōng

HSK 3

纟(silk)

end

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佟

tóng

Expansion

亻(person)

surname Tong

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咚

dōng

Expansion

口(mouth)

(onom.) boom (of a drum); knock (on the door)

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氡

dōng

Expansion

气(air)

radon (chemistry)

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終

Expansion

糹(thread)

—

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螽

zhōng

Expansion

虫(insect)

(grasshopper); Gompsocleis mikado

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鼕

Expansion

鼓(drum)

—

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