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:

止

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3

止 (zhǐ)

to stop

View Root Character Page Kangxi #77 (止) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (止)

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

2 Active Tones

Tone 3zhǐ

Tone 5

Family Characters (9)

Root: 止

止

zhǐ

HSK 3

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to stop

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此

cǐ

HSK 3

匕(spoon)

this; these

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址

zhǐ

HSK 4

土(earth)

site; location

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扯

chě

HSK 7

扌(hand)

to pull, to tear, to chat, ridiculous

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耻

chǐ

HSK 7

耳(ear)

shame

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歷

Expansion

厤(calendar)

—

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祉

zhǐ

Expansion

礻(spirit)

felicity

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芷

zhǐ

Expansion

艹(plants)

angelica (type of iris); plant root used in TCM

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趾

zhǐ

Expansion

足(foot)

toe

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