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:

责

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3

责 (zé)

responsibility

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (责)

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

2 Active Tones

Tone 2zé

Tone 4zì

Family Characters (7)

Root: 责

责

zé

HSK 3

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

responsibility

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啧

zé

Expansion

口(mouth)

(interj. of admiration or of disgust); to click one's tongue

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帻

zé

Expansion

巾(cloth)

turban; head-covering

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渍

zì

Expansion

氵(water)

to soak; to be stained

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碛

qì

Expansion

石(stone)

(bound form) moraine; rocks in shallow water

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箦

zé

Expansion

⺮(bamboo)

reed mat

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赜

zé

Expansion

臣(minister)

mysterious

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