群众
qúnzhòng · HSK 5
the masses
👥 群 = flock/group + 众 = crowd (three 人 = many people)
群 contains 羊 (sheep) hinting at a flock, while 众 stacks three 人 (person) characters to mean crowd. Together: a group-crowd, i.e. the masses, a swarm, or a huddle of people.
群 — 君 jūn (phonetic) + 羊 sheep (semantic)
群 is a phono-semantic compound. The 羊 (sheep) component gives the meaning — sheep naturally gather in flocks — while 君 (jūn) supplies the sound. From the literal sense of a flock, the meaning broadened to any group, crowd, or cluster of people or things.