院士
yuànshì · HSK 7
academician
🎓 院 institute/academy + 士 scholar = a top scholar elected to an academy
院 means an academy or institute; 士 means a scholar or learned gentleman. An academician is a senior scholar holding membership in a national academy. Sound hook: yuàn rhymes with the on in the door of an institute, shì sounds like the start of scholar.
院 — left ear 阝(阜) + complete 完
院 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left 阝 (from 阜, mound/hill) suggests walls or enclosed terrain, hinting at an enclosed space. The right 完 (wán) provides the sound and originally meant 'complete', so 院 came to mean a walled courtyard or institution like a hospital or academy.