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:

曾

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3

曾 (zēng)

Surname Zeng / great-

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (曾)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1zēng

Tone 4zèng

Tone 5

Family Characters (13)

Root: 曾

曾

zēng

HSK 3

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

Surname Zeng / great-

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增

zēng

HSK 3

土(earth)

increase

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赠

zèng

HSK 5

贝(shell)

to give as a present

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僧

sēng

HSK 7

亻(person)

(bound form) Buddhist monk (abbr. for 僧伽[seng1 qie2])

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蹭

cèng

HSK 7

足(foot)

to rub against, to walk slowly, to freeload

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噌

cēng

Expansion

口(mouth)

to scold; whoosh!

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層

Expansion

尸(body)

—

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憎

zēng

Expansion

忄(heart)

to detest

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甑

zèng

Expansion

瓦(tile)

cauldron; rice pot

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繒

Expansion

糹(silk)

—

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缯

zēng

Expansion

纟(silk)

surname Zeng; silk fabrics

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罾

zēng

Expansion

罒(net)

large square net

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贈

Expansion

貝(shell)

—

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