话剧
huà jù · HSK 3
stage play
🎭 话剧 = speech/talk + drama
话 means speech or talk, and 剧 means drama or play. Together they mean a spoken drama — i.e. a stage play, as opposed to opera (歌剧, sung drama) or film. The 'talk-drama' compound captures that it's performed through dialogue.
话 — speech radical 讠 (言) + tongue 舌
话 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified from 言, 'speech') gives the meaning, signaling something said, while 舌 ('tongue') hints at the sound and reinforces the speaking sense. The traditional form 話 makes the 言 element explicit; today 话 means 'speech, talk, words.'
剧 — 豦 (tiger+pig) + 刂 knife radical
Originally written 劇, a phono-semantic compound: 豦 (jù, a fierce beast) gives the sound, while 刂 (knife) suggests intensity or cutting action. The original meaning was 'severe' or 'intense,' later extended to 'drama/play' since theatrical performances were dramatic and intense. 剧 is the simplified form.