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:

卯

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

卯 (mǎo)

mortise (slot cut into wood to receive a tenon); 4th earthly branch: 5–7 a.m., 2nd solar month (6th March–4th April), Year of the Rabbit

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (卯)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 2liáo

Tone 3mǎo

Tone 4mào

Tone 5

Family Characters (12)

Root: 卯

卯

mǎo

Expansion

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

mortise (slot cut into wood to receive a tenon); 4th earthly branch: 5–7 a.m., 2nd solar month (6th March–4th April), Year of the Rabbit

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聊

liáo

HSK 4

耳(ear)

chat

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贸

mào

HSK 5

贝(shell)

trade

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柳

liǔ

HSK 7

木(tree)

surname Liu; willow

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劉

Expansion

刂(knife)

—

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峁

mǎo

Expansion

山(mountain)

round yellow dirt mount (in the Northwest of China)

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昴

mǎo

Expansion

日(sun)

the Pleiades

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泖

mǎo

Expansion

氵(water)

still water

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茆

máo

Expansion

艹(plants)

variant of 茅[mao2]; thatch

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貿

Expansion

贝(shell)

—

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鉚

Expansion

釒(metal)

—

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铆

mǎo

Expansion

钅(metal)

to fasten with a rivet; to rivet; to hammer in a rivet

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