都会
とかい · tokai · JLPT N3 · noun
city
🏙️ 都会 = capital 都 + gathering 会: where everyone meets
都 means capital or metropolis (as in 東京都, Tokyo Metropolis), and 会 means to meet or gather. A 都会 is the place where crowds of people come together. Toyota's home region is called 東海 (tōkai); don't mix it up with 都会 (tokai).
都 — 者 (phonetic) + 邑/阝 (city radical)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right-side 阝 (a reduced form of 邑 'city, settlement') gives the meaning, while 者 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to a capital or major city, and later extended to mean 'all' or 'even' when read dōu.
会 — 人 person on top + 云 cloud/say below (simplified from 會)
The traditional form 會 showed a lid over a vessel with contents stacked inside, depicting things coming together — hence 'meet, gather, assemble.' From 'gathering' it extended to 'meeting,' then 'understand' (minds meeting) and 'be able to.' The simplified 会 keeps only a schematic top and bottom.