腥
xīng · HSK 7
fishy (smell)
🐟 腥 = 月 meat radical + 星 star; star gives the xīng sound, meat hints at raw-flesh fish smell
The 月 flesh radical points at meat or fish, while 星 (xīng, star) is purely the sound clue. Together they tag the raw, fishy reek of uncooked seafood. Same xīng sound as 星, so if you know star, you know how to say it.
腥 — meat radical 月 (肉) + 星 xīng (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 月 (a form of 肉 'flesh/meat') gives the meaning, while 星 supplies the sound xīng. It originally referred to the raw, fishy smell of meat or fish, and by extension came to mean 'rank' or 'fishy-smelling' in general.