澄清
chéngqīng · HSK 7
clarify
💧 Both share the water radical — double clearness means clarify
澄 pairs water (氵) with 登 climb; 清 pairs water with 青 blue-green. Two clear-water characters side by side: clarifying is making something twice as transparent.
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.