清理
qīnglǐ · HSK 5
to clear up; to tidy up
🧹 清 (clear) + 理 (arrange) = clear and arrange = settle/sort out
清 means clear or clean; 理 means to arrange, manage, or put in order. Together they mean to clear up and arrange — settling accounts, sorting out affairs, or tidying matters.
清 — water 氵 + 青 (azure/blue-green, phonetic)
清 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning—originally clear, unmuddied water—while 青 (qīng, azure) supplies the sound and reinforces the image of pure blue-green water. The sense later broadened from 'clear water' to 'clear, pure, clean' in general.
理 — jade radical 玉/王 + village 里 (phonetic)
理 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the jade radical 王 (玉) on the left signals meaning, while 里 on the right gives the sound. It originally meant the natural veins or grain in a piece of jade, then extended to 'pattern,' 'order,' 'principle,' and finally the modern senses 'reason' and 'to manage.'