猜测
cāicè · HSK 5
guess
🤔 猜 = guess radical + 青 (qing); 测 = water + measure → 'measure-guess'
猜 means to guess; 测 means to measure or gauge. Together: gauge-by-guessing, i.e. surmise. The 氵 (water) in 测 hints at old surveying of water depth — measuring what you can't directly see.
猜 — dog radical 犭 + 青 (qīng)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The dog radical 犭 hints at the original sense of suspicion or wariness, like a dog sizing up a stranger, while 青 (qīng) supplies the sound (shifted to cāi). Over time the meaning broadened from 'suspect' to today's main sense, 'to guess.'
测 — water radical 氵 + 则 (rule/standard)
测 combines the water radical 氵, hinting at meaning, with 则 (rule, standard), which also supplies the sound. Originally it referred to gauging the depth of water, then broadened to mean measuring, surveying, or testing in general.