告知
gàozhī · HSK 7
to inform
📢 告 = tell/announce + 知 = know; literally announce-know = inform
告 carries the sense of declaring or reporting; 知 means knowledge or awareness. Together 告知 is the formal act of making something known to someone — used in notices, legal disclosures, and official announcements.
告 — ox 牛 (top) + mouth 口
Originally a pictograph showing an ox with something on its head, possibly a yoke or sacrificial marker, combined with 口 (mouth) to suggest announcing or reporting. The character came to mean 'to tell' or 'to announce,' as in making a formal declaration. Today it commonly appears in words like 告诉 (to tell) and 报告 (report).