Chinese homophone finder for 19 crowded pinyin syllables. Type a syllable (shi, shi4, shì) or a character in either script to see every first-level standard character read with it, grouped by tone, with readings from the 2013 standard dictionary.
Chinese Homophones Finder (同音字查询)
How to use
Enter pinyin
With or without the tone: shi, shi4 and shì all work (5 or 0 for the neutral tone). The tool lists every tone of the syllable and marks the one you typed.
Browse by tone
Results are grouped tone 1 (high level) / tone 2 (rising) / tone 3 (dipping) / tone 4 (falling) / neutral. Each character shows its reading, and one with other readings says so ("also …").
Search by character
Type a character in either script (时 or 時) on any language page. The tool finds every reading it has in the table and marks it.
Quick-pick syllables
A syllable quick-link list appears below, with the number of characters for each — click any to search instantly.
Homophones — Chinese's feature + double-edged sword
Counting every reading in China's 2013 standard dictionary (《通用规范汉字字典》), the 8,105 characters of the 2013 standard list use only 409 distinct syllables without tones and 1,296 with them (data: Unicode Unihan 17.0, field kTGHZ2013). The 3,500 first-level characters, the commonest, carry 3,991 readings over 401 syllables — about ten readings per syllable on average, or three to four once the tone is counted. That is why homophones are everywhere in Chinese.
What homophones enable
(1) Wordplay: puns, rhymes and riddles lean on shared sounds — though many famous number puns are near misses: 四 sì (four) and 死 sǐ (death) differ in tone, and 八 bā (eight) only rhymes with 发 fā (prosper). (2) A spoken-language challenge: the tone carries the meaning (妈 mā mother / 麻 má hemp / 马 mǎ horse / 骂 mà scold — the example the 1958 Hanyu Pinyin scheme itself gives, with 吗 ma for the neutral tone). (3) Names: each syllable of a name can be checked against the characters that share it.
"四 and 死 differ only in tone; 八 and 发 only rhyme. Many famous number puns are near misses, not exact homophones."
Use cases
(1) Naming: see which characters share each syllable of a name, and whether the tone matches too. (2) Poetry / lyrics: find characters with the same syllable. (3) Riddle composition: homophone wordplay is the soul of Chinese 灯谜. (4) Translation: explaining Chinese puns, near misses included (八 and 发 only rhyme in Cantonese too: baat3 / faat3).
This tool's scope
19 pinyin syllables. For each, every one of the 3,500 first-level characters that the 2013 standard dictionary reads with that syllable, grouped by tone: 409 readings of 383 characters (a character with two readings in the table is listed twice). The table is generated from Unicode's Unihan data, not typed by hand.
Four hundred syllables carry three and a half thousand characters
Counting every reading in the 2013 standard dictionary, its 8,105 characters use 409 syllables without tones and 1,296 with them — the figure Unicode's documentation for the field states.
Of the 401 syllables the 3,500 first-level characters use, only 140 have characters in all four tones.
The most crowded syllables among first-level characters: ji with 56, then shi and yi with 47 each, counting every reading.
Tone 4 is the commonest: 1,352 of the 3,991 first-level readings are falling-tone; tone 3 has 680 and the neutral tone 31.
Tones separate about two-thirds of same-syllable pairs: on each first-level character's customary reading (Unihan kMandarin), 25,087 pairs share a syllable and 8,036 share the tone as well.
四 sì and 死 sǐ differ only in tone, and in Cantonese too (sei3 / sei2).
八 bā and 发 fā have different initials and only rhyme; so do Cantonese baat3 and faat3.
九 and 久 are exact homophones in both Mandarin (jiǔ) and Cantonese (gau2).
六 and 禄 are homophones only in Cantonese (both luk6); in Mandarin they are liù and lù.
25 of the 383 characters in this table appear under more than one of its readings, such as 只 zhī / zhǐ and 识 shí / zhì.
Frequently Asked Questions
19 syllables with many homophones. For each, every one of the 3,500 first-level characters read with it: 409 readings of 383 characters, generated from Unicode's Unihan data.
Type each syllable of the name. The result lists the first-level characters sharing that syllable, with their tones, so you can see which share the sound exactly and which differ only in tone. The tool compares sounds only; it says nothing about meanings or luck.
Most of them. 妈 mā (T1) / 麻 má (T2) / 马 mǎ (T3) / 骂 mà (T4) share a syllable and differ in meaning. On Unihan's customary readings, the tone separates about two-thirds of first-level pairs that share a syllable; the other third share the tone too.
Mostly near misses. 四 sì and 死 sǐ differ in tone; 八 bā and 发 fā only rhyme; 九 and 久 are exact in both Mandarin and Cantonese; 六 and 禄 are exact only in Cantonese (luk6). Readings from Unicode Unihan's kMandarin and kCantonese fields.
Yes, in either script, on any language page. Enter 时 or 時 and the tool finds every reading it has in the table and marks it. A character outside the 19 syllables, or outside the first level, returns "not in the table".
(1) 「在/再」, 「的/得/地」, 「他/她/它」 — these are grammar traps. (2) 「ji」, 「shi」, 「yi」 — the three most crowded syllables among first-level characters (56, 47 and 47 characters).
Readings: the 2013 standard dictionary 《通用规范汉字字典》 (Commercial Press), as transcribed in Unicode Unihan 17.0.0, field kTGHZ2013. Characters: the first level of the 2013 standard list 《通用规范汉字表》 (State Council notice 国发〔2013〕23号), from Unihan's kTGH field. Traditional forms come from OpenCC, checked against Unihan for the reading; Taiwan readings from Unihan's kMandarin. The table is generated by a script and gives no meanings.
The table covers only 19 syllables with many homophones (shi, ma, yi, fang, wang, qing, gong, jia, li, hai, dao, long, feng, kong, tong, guo, mei, ji, zhi), not all 409 that the standard characters use. Anything outside it returns "not one of the syllables this tool covers" rather than a guess. Tone marks (shì) and tone numbers (shi4) are fine.
Method & sources
How it computes
A lookup, not a calculation. The table is generated from Unicode's Unihan 17.0.0 data: for 19 pinyin syllables (shi, ma, yi, fang, wang, qing, gong, jia, li, hai, dao, long, feng, kong, tong, guo, mei, ji, zhi), every reading 《通用规范汉字字典》(2013) gives to any of the 3,500 first-level characters, grouped by tone: 409 readings of 383 characters. A character query matches the listed character itself, in either script; pinyin takes tone marks or numbers.
What this tool implements
- Romanisation is Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音方案, 1958): four tone marks and the unmarked neutral tone. Input may carry tone marks (shì), tone numbers (shi4; 5 or 0 for the neutral tone) or neither; results are grouped 阴平 / 阳平 / 上声 / 去声 / 轻声.
- The characters are exactly the 3,500 first-level characters of 《通用规范汉字表》(2013), identified by Unihan's kTGH index (1-3500); no second- or third-level character is listed.
- Readings are every reading 《通用规范汉字字典》(商务印书馆, 2013) gives, as transcribed in Unihan's kTGHZ2013 field; a character with several readings in the 19 syllables is listed under each.
- Coverage is deliberately partial: 19 high-density syllables of the 409 that the 8,105 standard characters use. A syllable outside the table returns no result rather than a guess.
- Traditional forms come from OpenCC (cn → tw), kept for a reading only where Unihan gives that form the reading (隻 under zhī, not zhǐ). Either script is accepted on every page. Readings are the mainland standard's; where Unihan's kMandarin records a different Taiwan reading for the form shown, the table notes it.
- No meanings are given: Unihan's definitions describe a character, not one of its readings, and a gloss under the wrong reading misleads.
Sources
- Unicode Consortium. Unicode Standard Annex #38: Unicode Han Database (Unihan) — fields kTGH, kTGHZ2013, kMandarin, kCantonese, kTraditionalVariant. https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr38/
- Unicode Consortium. Unihan database, Unicode 17.0.0 (Unihan_Readings.txt dated 2025-07-24), Unicode License V3. https://www.unicode.org/Public/17.0.0/ucd/Unihan.zip
- 国务院. 国务院关于公布《通用规范汉字表》的通知（国发〔2013〕23号）, 2013年8月19日. https://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2013-08/19/content_2469793.htm
- 中华人民共和国教育部. 汉语拼音方案（1958年2月11日第一届全国人民代表大会第五次会议批准）. http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/ziliao/A19/195802/t19580201_186000…
- OpenCC, opencc-js 1.3.1 — Simplified to Taiwan Traditional conversion. https://github.com/nk2028/opencc-js
What can make this go out of date
- None at runtime: the table is generated ahead of time from Unihan 17.0.0 and served with the page. A newer Unihan release is adopted only by re-running the builder, which refuses unpinned input files.
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