混ぜる
まぜる · mazeru · JLPT N3 · verb-ichidan
to mix
🥣🥄 mazeru sounds like maze: stirring sends things in a maze of swirls
The kanji 混 is the same one used in Chinese 混 (hùn, to mix), as in 混乱 (confusion). Its water radical 氵 points to mixing liquids. Related: 混ざる (mazaru) means to get mixed, while 混ぜる means you do the mixing.
混 — water radical 氵 + 昆 (kūn, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 氵 (water) gives the meaning, while 昆 supplies the sound. The original sense was waters mingling or flowing together, which extended to 'mix, blend, confuse.' Modern uses like 混乱 (chaos) and 混合 (to mix) preserve this core idea of things merging.