邪
xié · HSK 7
evil
👹 牙 fang + 阝 town: the fanged thing prowling the town is the evil, nefarious one
邪 pairs 牙 (yá, fang/tooth) with the right-side 阝 town radical. A predator baring fangs in your town is demonic, iniquitous, nefarious. The fang sound yá also nudges the reading xié.
邪 — 牙 (tooth/phonetic) + 阝 (right ear, 邑 city radical)
邪 is a phonosemantic compound. The right-side 阝 (from 邑, 'settlement') originally referred to a place name, while 牙 supplied the sound. Over time the place-name use faded and the character was borrowed for the abstract sense 'crooked, evil, heterodox,' which is now its main meaning.