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:

火

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

火 (huǒ)

fire

Family Characters

HSK Words

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

2 Active Tones

Tone 2dí

Tone 3huǒ

Root: 火

火

huǒ

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

fire

伙

huǒ

HSK 4

meals (abbr. for 伙食[huo3 shi2]); variant of 夥|伙[huo3]

狄

dí

Expansion

surname Di; generic name for northern ethnic minorities during the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 BC-220 AD)

钬

huǒ

Expansion

holmium (chemistry)