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:

贞

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 7

贞 (zhēn)

chaste

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (贞)

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

1 Active Tones

Tone 1zhēn

Family Characters (6)

Root: 贞

贞

zhēn

HSK 7

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

chaste

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侦

zhēn

HSK 7

亻(person)

to scout; to spy

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帧

zhēn

Expansion

巾(cloth)

frame; classifier for paintings etc

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桢

zhēn

Expansion

木(tree)

(old) privet (genus Ligustrum); (bound form) (old) wooden support placed at the ends of a wall during construction; (fig.) mainstay; pillar; backbone

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浈

zhēn

Expansion

氵(water)

river in Guangdong province

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祯

zhēn

Expansion

礻(spirit)

auspicious; lucky

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