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:

支

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3

支 (zhī)

to support, branch, classifier for long thin objects

View Root Character Page Kangxi #65 (支) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (支)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1zhī

Tone 2qí

Tone 3gǔ

Tone 4jì

Family Characters (14)

Root: 支

支

zhī

HSK 3

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to support, branch, classifier for long thin objects

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技

jì

HSK 3

扌(hand)

skill

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鼓

gǔ

HSK 5

壴(drum)

old variant of 鼓[gu3]

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枝

zhī

HSK 6

木(tree)

branch

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歧

qí

HSK 7

止(stop)

divergent

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翅

chì

HSK 7

羽(feather)

variant of 翅[chi4]

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肢

zhī

HSK 7

⺼(meat)

limb

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吱

zhī

Expansion

口(mouth)

(onom.) creaking or groaning

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岐

qí

Expansion

山(mountain)

surname Qi; also used in place names

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庋

guǐ

Expansion

广(shelter)

(literary) shelf; (literary) to store; to keep; to preserve

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忮

zhì

Expansion

忄(heart)

(literary) (bound form) jealous

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芰

jì

Expansion

艹(plants)

(archaic) water caltrop (Trapa natans)

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豉

chǐ

Expansion

豆(bean)

salted fermented beans

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跂

zhī

Expansion

足(foot)

see 踶跂[di4 zhi1]

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