敲门
qiāo mén · HSK 5
to knock on a door
✊🚪 敲 = knock + 门 = door; knock on door
敲 means to knock or strike, and 门 means door or gate. Together they literally read knock-door. The 门 character itself is a pictograph of a two-leaf swinging gate.
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.
门 — pictograph of double-leaf gate
门 is a pictograph showing a pair of swinging doors hung in a doorway, originally drawn as 門 in oracle-bone script with two clear leaves. The simplified form 门 keeps the same outline with fewer strokes. It still means 'gate' or 'door' and serves as a phonetic in characters like 们, 问, and 闷.