瞪
dèng · HSK 7
stare
👀 dèng sounds like DUNG — you step in dung and your eyes fly open wide
The character has 目 (eye) on the left plus 登 (climb/ascend) on the right. Your stare escalates — eyes climbing wider and wider open, like the shock of stepping in something foul.
瞪 — eye 目 + ascend 登 (phonetic)
瞪 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 目 ('eye') gives the meaning, while 登 ('to ascend') supplies the sound. It originally referred to opening the eyes wide, and came to mean staring or glaring at someone, often with surprise or anger.