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嶝 (dèng) fuses the mountain radical 山 (shān) with 登 (dēng, 'ascend') to create a phono-semantic compound. The mountain component sets the semantic category of a landform, while 登 gives the reading dèng and conceptually highlights the action of climbing. Throughout its historical usage, the character has consistently denoted a steep mountain path or stone steps that lead uphill, often appearing in contexts of elevated, stepped walkways and rugged passes. Its structure thus mirrors this meaning exactly: a road that ascends a mountain, with 登 also serving as the phonetic clue. The written form encapsulates both the terrain and the required movement in a transparent graph.
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