誤解
ごかい · gokai · JLPT N3 · noun
misinterpretation
🤷 誤 mistake + 解 understand = understanding it wrong
誤 (go) means error, as in 誤り (ayamari, mistake). 解 (kai) means to solve or untangle, as in 理解 (rikai, comprehension). Put them together and you get an untangling that went wrong: a misunderstanding.
解 — horn 角 + knife 刀 + ox 牛
解 is an ideograph showing hands using a knife (刀) to separate the horn (角) from an ox (牛). The original meaning was to butcher or dismember an ox, which broadened to 'untie, separate, loosen,' and then extended figuratively to 'explain' or 'understand'—to take something apart mentally.