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:

音

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

音 (yīn)

sound

View Root Character Page Kangxi #180 (音) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (音)

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

5 Active Tones

Tone 1yīn

Tone 2zhí

Tone 3ǎn

Tone 4yì

Tone 5

Family Characters (11)

Root: 音

音

yīn

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

sound

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意

yì

HSK 2

心(heart)

meaning, idea, thought, intention

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暗

àn

HSK 4

日(sun)

variant of 暗[an4]

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喑

yīn

Expansion

口(mouth)

mute

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戠

zhí

Expansion

戈(halberd)

to gather; old variant of 埴[zhi2]

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揞

ǎn

Expansion

扌(hand)

to apply (medicinal powder to a wound); to cover up

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歆

xīn

Expansion

欠(yawn)

pleased; moved

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窨

xūn

Expansion

穴(cave)

to scent tea with flowers; variant of 熏[xun1]

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諳

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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谙

ān

Expansion

讠(speech)

to be versed in; to know well

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黯

àn

Expansion

黑(black)

(bound form) dark; dull (color); dim; gloomy

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