药物
yàowù · HSK 4
medicine
💊 药 = medicine + 物 = thing; literally 'medicine-thing' = pharmaceutical
药 (yào) means medicine or drug; 物 (wù) means thing or substance. Together 药物 names the category of medicinal substances — what English calls pharmaceuticals or drugs, as opposed to a specific pill (药片) or treatment (治疗).
药 — grass radical 艹 + 约 (yuē, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The grass radical 艹 on top signals a plant or herb, reflecting that early Chinese medicines were largely herbal. The component 约 below provides the sound, hinting at the pronunciation yào. The traditional form is 藥.