Jellyfish can sting people, so be careful when swimming.
Tips
usage
Read zhē for the verb 'to sting', most often with bees, wasps, or jellyfish (蜜蜂 sting, 水母 sting). Read instead as zhé it is a noun for the edible jellyfish, as in 海蜇.
Bottom insect radical, a pictograph of a curled crawling creature. It anchors the meaning: 蜇 is the action of stinging creatures. The 虫 base groups it with 蜂 (bee), 蝎 (scorpion), 蛇 (snake).
Top 折 supplies the sound, zhé to zhē. It shows a hand 扌 breaking something with an axe 斤, a faint semantic bonus: a sting feels like a sudden snap of pain piercing the skin. The same phonetic appears in 哲, 浙.
