猛烈
měng liè · HSK 7
fierce
🔥 猛 fierce/sudden + 烈 intense/fiery = fierce, violent (force or criticism)
猛 carries the sense of sudden ferocity (as in 猛兽, a fierce beast); 烈 means blazing or intense (as in 烈火, raging fire). Stacked together they describe an onslaught that hits hard and hot, used for storms, attacks, or scathing criticism.
猛 — dog radical 犭 + 孟 (mèng, phonetic)
猛 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The dog radical 犭 indicates a fierce animal, while 孟 (mèng) supplies the sound. Originally describing a ferocious hunting dog, its meaning broadened to 'fierce, violent, vigorous' for anything intense.