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:

区

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3

区 (ōu)

district

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (区)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1ōu

Tone 3ǒu

Tone 4òu

Family Characters (14)

Root: 区

区

ōu

HSK 3

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

district

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呕

ǒu

HSK 7

口(mouth)

vomit

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抠

kōu

HSK 7

扌(hand)

to dig, pick, scratch, or be stingy

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枢

shū

HSK 7

木(tree)

(bound form) hinge; pivot (usu. fig.)

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殴

ōu

HSK 7

殳(wooden spear)

to beat up

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躯

qū

HSK 7

身(body)

human body

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驱

qū

HSK 7

马(horse)

variant of 驅|驱[qu1]

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岖

qū

Expansion

山(mountain)

used in 崎嶇|崎岖[qi2 qu1]

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怄

òu

Expansion

忄(heart)

to annoy; to irritate

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沤

ōu

Expansion

氵(water)

bubble; froth

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瓯

ōu

Expansion

瓦(tile)

old name for Wenzhou City 溫州市|温州市[Wen1 zhou1 shi4] in Zhejiang 浙江[Zhe4 jiang1]; (pottery) bowl or drinking vessel

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眍

kōu

Expansion

目(eye)

to sink in (of eyes)

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讴

ōu

Expansion

讠(speech)

to sing; ballad

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鸥

ōu

Expansion

鸟(bird)

common gull

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