Eye radical on the left, the indexing component. Pictograph of an eye on its end (the original was horizontal, like 罒). It places 瞭 in the seeing family: 看 look, 睛 eyeball, 瞧 glance, 睁 open eyes. The eye marks 瞭 as watching from afar.
Right side 尞 supplies the sound with a tone shift liáo to liào. The same phonetic powers a family: 僚 colleague, 寮 dormitory, 撩 lift up, 燎 set ablaze, 嘹 clear-sounding - all sharing the liao syllable. Pin the reading by grouping these on sight.
