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:

辛

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 5

辛 (xīn)

hot, pungent, bitter, laborious, suffering, eighth Heavenly Stem

View Root Character Page Kangxi #160 (辛) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (辛)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1xīn

Tone 3zǐ

Tone 4biàn

Tone 5

Family Characters (8)

Root: 辛

辛

xīn

HSK 5

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

hot, pungent, bitter, laborious, suffering, eighth Heavenly Stem

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辫

biàn

HSK 7

纟(silk)

a braid or queue, to plait

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梓

zǐ

Expansion

木(tree)

Chinese catalpa (Catalpa ovata), a tree that serves as a symbol of one's hometown and whose wood is used to make various items; (bound form) printing blocks

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莘

shēn

Expansion

艹(plants)

surname Shen; long

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辦

Expansion

力(power)

—

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辮

Expansion

糸(silk)

—

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鋅

Expansion

釒(metal)

—

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锌

xīn

Expansion

钅(metal)

zinc (chemistry)

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