敲
qiāo · HSK 5
to hit
🥢🚪 高 (gāo, tall) on the right gives the sound qiāo; left side is a hand striking
敲 splits into 高 (tall, the phonetic clue for qiāo) plus 攴 on the right — a hand holding a stick. So the character literally encodes a hand-with-stick striking action, pronounced like 高 with a different tone.
敲 — 高 (tall) phonetic + 攴/攵 (strike) semantic
敲 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 攴 (also written 攵) shows a hand holding a stick, giving the meaning 'to strike' or 'to knock.' The left side 高 'tall' supplies the sound. Together they depict the action of knocking or rapping on something.