混浊
hùn zhuó · HSK 7
muddy
💧🟤 混 mix + 浊 turbid = water all mixed up, so it turns muddy and dirty
混 carries the sense of mixing or confusing things together; 浊 means turbid or unclear. Stir sediment into water and you get 混浊: cloudy, muddy, dirty liquid.
混 — water radical 氵 + 昆 (kūn, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 氵 (water) gives the meaning, while 昆 supplies the sound. The original sense was waters mingling or flowing together, which extended to 'mix, blend, confuse.' Modern uses like 混乱 (chaos) and 混合 (to mix) preserve this core idea of things merging.