居民楼
jūmínlóu · HSK 7
apartment building
🏢 居民 (residents) + 楼 (multi-story building) = the building where residents live
居 means to reside/dwell, 民 means people or citizens, so 居民 is residents. 楼 is a multi-floor building. Together: a residential apartment block, not an office or shop.
楼 — wood radical 木 + 婁 (lóu, phonetic)
楼 is a phono-semantic compound. The 木 radical signals wood, fitting a multi-storied wooden building, while 婁 supplies the lóu sound. Originally written 樓, it referred to a tower or upper story, and today means a multi-floor building or a specific floor.