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:

由

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

由 (yóu)

from, by, because of, via

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (由)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1chōu

Tone 2yóu

Tone 4xiù

Tone 5

Family Characters (17)

Root: 由

由

yóu

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

from, by, because of, via

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油

yóu

HSK 2

氵(water)

oil

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邮

yóu

HSK 3

阝(city)

post, mail

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抽

chōu

HSK 4

扌(hand)

to draw out, pull out, or whip

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袖

xiù

HSK 6

衤(clothes)

sleeve

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宙

zhòu

HSK 7

宀(roof)

universe, eternity

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轴

zhóu

HSK 7

车(car)

axis

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妯

zhóu

Expansion

女(woman)

used in 妯娌[zhou2 li5]

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岫

xiù

Expansion

山(mountain)

cave; mountain peak

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柚

yòu

Expansion

木(tree)

pomelo (Citrus maxima or C. grandis); shaddock

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舳

zhú

Expansion

舟(boat)

poopdeck; stern of boat

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蚰

yóu

Expansion

虫(insect)

see 蚰蜒[you2 yan5]

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軸

Expansion

車(car)

—

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釉

yòu

Expansion

釆(distinguish)

glaze (of porcelain)

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鈾

Expansion

釒(metal)

—

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铀

yóu

Expansion

钅(metal)

uranium (chemistry); Taiwan pr. [you4]

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鼬

yòu

Expansion

鼠(rat)

(zoology) weasel

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