审核
shěnhé · HSK 7
to audit; to investigate thoroughly
🔍✅ 审 examine + 核 check = examine and verify, the two-step approval a censor does
审 carries the sense of scrutinise or try a case; 核 means to check or audit (also nucleus, the core fact). Together: scrutinise then confirm against the facts, like vetting a document before it passes.
核 — wood 木 + 亥 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 木 ('wood/tree') gives the meaning, while 亥 supplies the sound. It originally referred to a hard-shelled fruit pit or kernel inside wood/fruit, then extended figuratively to 'core,' 'nucleus,' and in modern usage 'nuclear' (as in atomic nucleus).