砍
kǎn · HSK 7
cut
🪓 砍 = 石 stone + 欠; a stone-edged tool that chops and hacks
The 石 (stone) radical on the left tells you the action is done with a hard stone tool — an axe — while 欠 on the right carries the kǎn sound. So 砍 means to hack, chop, or cut down.
砍 — stone 石 + lack/yawn 欠
砍 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 石 (stone) suggests the meaning, evoking the act of striking or chopping with a hard tool, while 欠 on the right hints at the sound. It came to mean 'to chop' or 'hack,' as with an axe.