The character 耳朵, meaning "ear", is formed through a combination of pictorial and phonetic principles. The left component, 耳, is itself an ancient pictograph that visually resembles the outline of an external ear. The right component, 朵, which often means "flower bud" or implies something hanging, was added primarily for its phonetic value (both 朵 and 耳 shared a similar ancient pronunciation) but also contributes a secondary visual hint of the earlobe's soft, dangling shape. Together, they create a single, unified character where one part hints at the meaning and the other at the sound, a classic method of character formation in Chinese.