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:

周

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

周 (zhōu)

Zhou / cycle / all over

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (周)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1zhōu

Tone 2chóu

Tone 4diào

Tone 5

Family Characters (18)

Root: 周

周

zhōu

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

Zhou / cycle / all over

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调

diào

HSK 3

讠(speech)

tune, melody, transfer, tone

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稠

chóu

HSK 7

禾(grain)

dense

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绸

chóu

HSK 7

纟(silk)

(light) silk

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雕

diāo

HSK 7

隹(short-tailed bird)

variant of 雕[diao1], to engrave

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凋

diāo

Expansion

冫(ice)

withered

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啁

zhāo

Expansion

口(mouth)

used in 啁哳[zhao1 zha1]; Taiwan pr. [zhou1]

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惆

chóu

Expansion

忄(heart)

forlorn; vexed

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椆

chóu

Expansion

木(tree)

species of tree resistant to cold weather

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碉

diāo

Expansion

石(stone)

rock cave (archaic)

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綢

Expansion

糹(silk)

—

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蜩

tiáo

Expansion

虫(insect)

cicada

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調

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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賙

Expansion

貝(shell)

—

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赒

zhōu

Expansion

贝(shell)

to give to the needy; to bestow alms

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鯛

Expansion

魚(fish)

—

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鲷

diāo

Expansion

鱼(fish)

porgy; pagrus major

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鵰

Expansion

鳥(bird)

—

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