调料
tiáo liào · HSK 7
seasoning
🧂 调 (adjust/blend) + 料 (material/ingredient) = the stuff you blend in = seasoning
料 liào means material or ingredient (same 料 as in 材料, 饮料). 调 tiáo means to adjust or blend. Together: the ingredients you add to adjust a dish's flavor — condiments and seasoning.
调 — speech radical 讠(言) + 周 zhōu (phonetic)
调 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 讠(言) radical signals 'speech' or 'words,' while 周 supplies the sound. Originally meaning to harmonize or coordinate through words, it later extended to 'tune,' 'adjust,' and 'melody' (read diào), and 'mix evenly' or 'mediate' (read tiáo).
料 — rice 米 + dipper 斗
料 combines 米 (rice/grain) with 斗 (a measuring dipper), depicting the act of measuring out grain. From this concrete sense it extended to 'to measure, estimate, anticipate' and to 'materials' (things measured out for use), as in 材料 'materials' and 预料 'to anticipate'.