Origin

The character 階 combines two parts: the "hill" radical on the left, which suggests something related to climbing or elevation, and the component 皆 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The hill radical makes sense because stairs and storeys are physical structures you climb to go up. Over time, this character came to represent stairs specifically, and then expanded to mean the levels or storeys of a building as well. The visual logic of "climbing" connected to "levels" helps carry the full range of meanings the character has today.

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