Origin

This character combines the water radical on the left, which marks meanings related to liquids and clarity, with the component 登 on the right, which provides a sound hint for pronunciation. Just as water naturally clarifies when you let sediment settle to the bottom, the character came to mean "to become clear" or "to clarify." The water element is essential to the meaning—it's why 澄 specifically refers to clarity of liquids or figurative clarity, rather than being a general word for clearness.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).