点
てん · ten · JLPT N4 · noun
point
💯 Sounds like ten: a perfect ten is your point score
点 reads てん (ten), just like the English number ten. Judges give marks out of ten, so ten = points, score, grade. It also means a dot or small mark, the kind a teacher inks beside an answer when grading.
点 — fire radical 灬 + 占 (zhān, phonetic)
Originally written 點, a semantic-phonetic compound: 黑 (black) gave the meaning 'small black mark or dot' while 占 supplied the sound. It first referred to ink spots, then extended to 'point, drop, a little,' and verbs like 'to mark' or 'to light (a fire),' reflected in the simplified form's 灬 (fire) component.