回答
huídá · HSK 1
answer
💬 回 = return + 答 = reply; a reply that comes back
回 means return/circle back, 答 means respond. Together they form the act of sending a reply back. Sounds like 'hway-dah' — the 'dah' echoes the English 'duh, answer'.
回 — enclosure 囗 + smaller 囗 inside
回 is a pictograph of a swirling whirlpool or coiled spiral, shown as nested squares in modern form. The original meaning was 'to revolve' or 'turn around,' which extended to 'return' and 'a time/occurrence.' It also appears as a phonetic in characters like 茴 and 廻.
答 — bamboo radical 竹 + 合 (combine)
Originally written with the bamboo radical because answers were inscribed on bamboo slips. The phonetic 合 ('to join, match') gives both the sound and the sense of a reply 'matching' a question. Over time 答 came to mean 'answer' or 'respond' generally.