门口
ménkǒu · HSK 1
doorway
🚪 门 (door) + 口 (mouth/opening) = the mouth of the door, i.e. doorway
门 means door or gate, and 口 literally means mouth but extends to any opening or entrance. Together 门口 names the spot right at the door's opening — the threshold, gateway, or entryway.
门 — pictograph of double-leaf gate
门 is a pictograph showing a pair of swinging doors hung in a doorway, originally drawn as 門 in oracle-bone script with two clear leaves. The simplified form 门 keeps the same outline with fewer strokes. It still means 'gate' or 'door' and serves as a phonetic in characters like 们, 问, and 闷.
口 — pictograph of an open mouth
口 is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese, originally drawn as a simple outline of an open mouth. Its core meaning 'mouth' extended naturally to 'opening' or 'entrance', as in 入口 (entrance). It also serves as a common radical in characters related to speech, eating, or apertures.