Chinese polyphone (多音字) lookup. Enter one character → every reading with pinyin + zhuyin + meaning + example words; or paste text → polyphones highlighted with their in-context reading. Education drill, no AI, browser-only.
Chinese Polyphone Lookup
How to use
Pick a mode
"Lookup character" shows every reading of one polyphone; "Scan text" finds the polyphones inside a passage you paste.
Look up one character
In lookup mode, enter a single character (e.g. 行, 重, 乐). The tool lists each reading — pinyin, zhuyin, a short meaning, and 2–3 example words to tell the uses apart.
Scan a passage
Switch to scan mode and paste a sentence or article. The tool highlights polyphones, gives the in-context reading (judged from surrounding words) and lists the other possible readings to cross-check.
Learn from the examples
Every reading comes with example words — e.g. 行 as xíng (行走 walk) vs háng (银行 bank). Reading the examples is the fastest way to separate the readings.
Polyphones (多音字): When One Character Has Many Readings
A polyphone — 多音字 (duōyīnzì), also called 破音字 — is a single Chinese character that has two or more readings, where each reading usually carries a different meaning or part of speech. Polyphones are one of the most error-prone parts of learning Chinese, for native speakers and foreign learners alike. By linguists' counts, roughly one in six common modern characters is polyphonic, and a handful — 行, 重, 长, 乐, 还, 差, 着, 假 — are especially frequent and ambiguous trouble-spots. For example, 行 read as xíng means "walk / okay / conduct" (行走 to walk, 不行 not allowed, 行动 action), but read as háng it means "row / trade / institution" (银行 bank, 行业 industry, 内行 expert). Likewise 重 as zhòng means "heavy / important" (重量 weight, 重要 important), while 重 as chóng means "again / repeat" (重复 repeat, 重新 anew). One character, opposite meanings.
Why polyphones exist
Multiple readings arise from three main sources. First, historical sound change and literary-vs-colloquial readings (文白异读): the same character is read differently in formal written speech versus everyday speech — e.g. 血 is xuè in formal reading, xiě in colloquial. Second, semantic split: a character took on several meanings, and the language assigned distinct readings to keep them apart — e.g. 乐 is lè for "happy" but yuè for "music." Third, a change of part of speech or grammar: the same character reads differently as a noun versus a verb — e.g. 长 is cháng ("length") or zhǎng ("to grow / leader"). Understanding these patterns helps you reason about an unfamiliar context far better than rote memorisation.
How to master polyphones efficiently
The most effective technique is "let the word fix the sound" (以词定音): rather than memorising a bare character, bind each reading to a few signature words. When you see 重, first ask: is it 重要 / 重量 (zhòng) or 重复 / 重新 (chóng)? The example words flash to mind and the reading settles itself. This tool's "Lookup character" mode is built for exactly that: every reading comes with pinyin, zhuyin, and 2–3 example words so you can form reading-to-word associations. The "Scan text" mode does the reverse — it puts polyphones back into real sentences so you can test your judgement against context, ideal for reading-aloud correction drills. The tool runs entirely in your browser with no AI and no network calls; its reading data is a hand-curated set of common polyphones, so verify against an authoritative dictionary before relying on it.
"Let the word fix the sound; let the context fix the sense" — the working rule for polyphones.
10 Facts about Polyphones (多音字)
About one in six common modern characters is a polyphone. Standard reading tables list several hundred everyday characters carrying two or more accepted readings.
着 is among the most complex common polyphones, with four readings — zhe (particle), zháo (catch fire), zhuó (wear), zhāo (a move) — each with its own job.
差 has four readings — chā (difference), chà (nearly), chāi (business trip), cī (uneven, in 参差) — spanning noun, adjective, verb, and reduplicative uses.
Many polyphones come from literary-vs-colloquial readings (文白异读): 血 is formal xuè but colloquial xiě; 壳 is formal qiào but colloquial ké.
Readings often mark part of speech. 长 as cháng is mostly adjective/noun (length); as zhǎng it is mostly verb/noun (grow, chief).
Names and places are polyphone hotspots. 重庆 is Chóngqìng, not Zhòngqìng; 乐亭 is read Làotíng, not Lè/Yuè — proper-noun readings often must be memorised separately.
还 is a high-frequency polyphone: hái means "still / also," huán means "return / restore." Both readings are extremely common in daily speech.
Pinyin input is forgiving of polyphones: typing zhong or chong both yield 重, because the IME picks readings by word, not by isolated character.
The key to a polyphone is the word, not the lone character. This tool's scan mode reads in context (whole words) rather than guessing a character in isolation.
Readings can differ across regions. 企 is qǐ in the mainland but qì in Taiwan; 危 is wēi in the mainland and also wéi in Taiwan — mind the regional standard when checking a dictionary.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A polyphone is a single Chinese character with two or more readings, where each reading usually maps to a different meaning or part of speech. For example 乐 is lè for "happy" but yuè for "music." About one in six common characters is polyphonic.
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"Lookup character" takes one polyphone and shows all its readings with pinyin, zhuyin, meaning, and example words — good for studying a single character. "Scan text" takes a passage, finds the polyphones, highlights them, and gives the reading each one should take in context — good for reading-aloud correction.
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Scan mode judges context using the underlying pinyin-pro dictionary; it is accurate for common words but can still mis-pick on rare collocations, names, or ambiguous sentences. The tool also lists the character's other readings for you to cross-check; for critical use, defer to an authoritative dictionary.
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Lookup mode uses this tool's built-in, hand-curated polyphone dataset (around a hundred-plus common polyphones with readings, meanings, and example words); scan mode additionally calls the open-source pinyin-pro library for context. Both reflect common readings — verify against an authoritative dictionary before relying on them.
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Yes. The interface offers Simplified, Traditional, and English, and the dataset includes both glyph forms for common polyphones (e.g. 乐/樂, 还/還). For the few reading differences specific to one form, defer to the dictionary for that region.
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No. A polyphone is one character with multiple readings; a variant character (异体字) is multiple glyph forms sharing one meaning and reading (e.g. 群/羣). This tool handles polyphones only, not variant-form merging.
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No. All lookups and scans run locally in your browser with no server calls, and no AI or network service is used.
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Two reasons: its secondary reading may be rare and outside the common dataset, or scan mode judged it to have a single common reading in that context. Switch to "Lookup character" and enter it directly to see whether it has other readings.
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The tool is meant for learning drills and quick reading checks. For formal publishing, exam-setting, or proper-noun annotation, defer to authoritative dictionaries; to annotate a whole passage with pinyin, pair it with the RT-CHN-022 Hanzi → Pinyin converter.
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At best the meaning is misread (e.g. saying 重新 as "zhòng-xīn"); at worst you lose marks in formal settings, broadcasting, or exams. Polyphone correction is a standard test point in reading-aloud and Mandarin proficiency tests, and drilling with example words markedly cuts your error rate.
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