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:

定

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

定 (dìng)

to fix, set, or book

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (定)

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

2 Active Tones

Tone 4dìng

Tone 5

Family Characters (10)

Root: 定

定

dìng

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to fix, set, or book

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淀

diàn

HSK 7

氵(water)

(bound form) shallow lake (usu. in place names)

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绽

zhàn

HSK 7

纟(silk)

to burst open; to split at the seam

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啶

dìng

Expansion

口(mouth)

idine (chemistry)

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碇

dìng

Expansion

石(stone)

variant of 碇[ding4]

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綻

Expansion

糹(thread)

—

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腚

dìng

Expansion

⺼(meat)

buttocks; butt

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錠

Expansion

釒(metal)

—

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锭

dìng

Expansion

钅(metal)

(weaving) spindle; ingot

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靛

diàn

Expansion

青(blue-green)

indigo pigment

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