路 lù = 足 zú (foot, the radical and semantic) + 各 gè (phonetic). A pictophonetic compound: 足 supplies the meaning (something walked on, traversed by foot), and 各 supplies the sound. The Old Chinese reading of 各 reconstructed by Baxter–Sagart (*kˤak) shares the velar onset and back vowel with 路 (*Cə.rˤak-s); the phonetic relationship is regular even though modern Mandarin gè / lù looks unrelated.

The radical 足 is one of the body radicals: foot, leg, motion. It generates a dense cluster of motion verbs and travel nouns: 跑 pǎo (to run), 跳 tiào (to jump), 跟 gēn (to follow), 踏 tà (to tread), 距 jù (distance), 跨 kuà (to stride). Among these, 路 is the only one that names the surface itself rather than the act of crossing it. The character encodes a quiet shift in perspective: from the moving foot to the ground beneath it.

Semantic range followed the literal: from the physical road, to the route taken, to the figurative course of an action or life. By the Han period, 路 was already used for both "highway" and "method, way of doing." Modern compounds preserve the full spread: 马路 mǎlù (paved street), 思路 sīlù (train of thought), 出路 chūlù (a way out, prospects), 死路 sǐlù (dead end, lit. and fig.).

路 and 道 both translate as "road" or "way" in English, and they fuse into the everyday compound 道路 dàolù. But the two characters carry different weights, and the difference is worth holding onto.

路 is the road as surface and route. It is what the foot walks on (note the radical), what the courier rides, what city planners pave. 路 names a specific stretch of ground between two points: 北京路 (Beijing Road), 这条路 (this road), 三公里的路 (three kilometres of road). The metaphors that grow from 路 stay close to the literal: 出路 (a way out of difficulty), 后路 (a fallback, lit. "back road"), 走错路 (took a wrong turn, in life or driving).

道 is the way as principle and navigation. The character pairs 辶 (motion) with 首 (head): a head moving purposefully, choosing direction. 道 carries the weight of philosophy (道家 Daoism), discipline (柔道 jūdō, 茶道 sadō), and moral order (天道 tiāndào, the Way of Heaven). Where 路 is the road you find on a map, 道 is the road you choose to walk and the principle that guides the choosing. Confucius's 朝闻道，夕死可矣 ("If I hear the Way in the morning, I may die content in the evening") would not make sense with 路 substituted in.

A useful test: if the sentence is about how to physically get somewhere, use 路. If it is about how one ought to live or act, use 道. The compound 道路 collapses both, which is why it shows up in slogans about national futures and life trajectories, where the political rhetoric wants the gravity of 道 plus the concreteness of 路.

A foot pressing into wet earth at dawn. The print stays. Another foot, another print, and after enough feet have passed, the prints become a track, and the track becomes a 路. The radical 足 sits on the left of the character because it sits beneath every road; without the foot, the ground is just ground.

Hold the contrast with 道 in mind. 道 has a head (首) over a moving foot (辶): a person choosing direction. 路 has only the foot (足) and the phonetic 各. 路 is what the foot finds; 道 is what the head decides. This is why a Chinese road sign reads 路 and a martial-art name reads 道. The same English word "way," but two different relationships to the ground.

Once the radical clicks, the compound family follows naturally: 走路 (walk-the-road), 路口 (mouth-of-the-road), 一路 (one-whole-road, the journey), 出路 (out-road, the way forward), 死路 (dead-road). The character keeps returning to the foot and the surface beneath it.