登 (dēng): to climb; to ascend; to mount

Meanings

1 to climb; to ascend; to mount
2 to publish; to record; to register

Characters

登

dēng

to climb; to publish; to register

The bottom component 豆 was originally a ritual vessel — stepping up onto a raised platform, hence 'to ascend'.

Examples

我们一起登山吧。

Wǒmen yìqǐ dēngshān ba.

Let's climb the mountain together.

这篇文章登在报纸上了。

Zhè piān wénzhāng dēng zài bàozhǐ shàng le.

This article was published in the newspaper.

他登上了长城。

Tā dēngshàng le Chángchéng.

He climbed the Great Wall.

Tips

usage

登 has two main meaning groups: (1) physically climbing/ascending (登山, 登长城), and (2) recording/publishing (登记, register; 登录, log in; 刊登, publish). Both share the idea of 'going up' or 'putting something up.'

Components

radical

癶 bō

two feet; stepping radical

Top stepping radical, a pictograph of two feet placed apart — the visual image of climbing or stepping up. It supplies the action: ascending, mounting, stepping onto something raised. The radical is rare but distinctive; it heads a small climbing family alongside 癸 and the now-archaic 癹. Here it pairs with the vessel below to picture stepping up to deliver something.

semantic

豆 dòu

ritual vessel; bean

Bottom 豆 originally pictured a tall, footed ritual vessel — a stemmed offering bowl raised on a pedestal (the 'bean' meaning is a much later borrowing). Combined with the two feet above, the whole forms a compound ideograph: a person stepping up to place an offering on a raised vessel — to mount, ascend, climb. From there 登 generalises to 'climb, board, publish, register' (登山, 登记, 登录).