The 東 family
東 · dōng · ㄉㄨㄥ — east
Know 東 and the readings of 4 more characters follow: 重、童、棟、凍. In traditional Chinese, most characters carry a sound component — a phonetic — and learning the phonetic once lights up its whole family. This page is that family, drawn live from the map.
The characters
One sound, many meanings: the 部首 beside each character is the other half of the pair, the part that tells them apart.
- 重zhòng · ㄓㄨㄥˋ部首 里 · li, ancient measure of length, approx. 500 mheavy; important67%
- 童tóng · ㄊㄨㄥˊ部首 立 · to standchild67%
- 棟dòng · ㄉㄨㄥˋ部首 木 · treeclassifier for houses or buildings; ridgepole (old)80%
- 凍dòng · ㄉㄨㄥˋ部首 冫 · "ice" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 15), occurring in 冰, 次 etc, known as 兩點水|两点水to freeze; to feel very cold80%
The percentage is our computed confidence that 東 really signals that character’s sound — scored from how closely the readings agree and how reliably 東 predicts the sound of every character built on it. Mean for this family: 74%.
Words this family builds
- 東西
- 重要
- 重新
- 嚴重
- 尊重
- 重點
- 保重
- 重大
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