舱
cāng · HSK 7
cabin
🚢✈️ cāng sounds like KONG — King Kong climbed into the ship's cabin
The character combines 舟 (boat) on the left with 仓 (warehouse/storage) on the right. A cabin is essentially a boat's storage compartment. The sound cāng echoes 仓 (cāng, warehouse), reinforcing that a cabin is where cargo or people are stored aboard a vessel.
舱 — boat radical 舟 + cāng 仓 (phonetic)
舱 is a phonetic-semantic compound. The left element 舟 means 'boat' and gives the meaning, while 仓 ('storehouse') supplies the sound cāng. Originally referring to the hold or compartment of a ship, it later extended to cabins in any vessel, including aircraft and spacecraft.