汇合
huì hé · HSK 7
to join
🌊💧 汇 = gather (water radical 氵) + 合 = join; waters gather and join = confluence
汇 carries the water radical 氵 and means to gather or pool; 合 means to close up or join together. Put them side by side and two flows gather into one — the literal sense of streams converging into a confluence.
汇 — water radical 氵 + 㠯 (older form)
汇 is the simplified form of 匯, originally depicting water (氵) flowing into a container (匚), meaning a place where streams converge. From this came the extended senses of gathering, collecting, and remitting funds. Modern uses like 汇款 (remit money) and 词汇 (vocabulary) all stem from this idea of things flowing together.
合 — 乛 (lid/roof) + 口 (mouth)
Originally a pictograph of a lidded vessel — a cover (亼) closing over an opening (口) — giving the core sense of 'come together, join, fit.' From 'fit/match' it extended to 'combine, unite, agree' and to measure-word uses. The reading hé reflects this 'joining' meaning.