题 is a pictophonetic compound: the radical 页 (yè, head; leaf) carries the meaning, and 是 (shì) supplies the sound. The 页 element is the ancient pictograph of a head, and it lends its sense of "top, front, the leading part" to the whole glyph. The original meaning of 题 was the forehead, the topmost surface of the face. From "forehead" the character moved naturally to "the front of a thing, the part placed at the top": the heading written above a piece, then the question set at the head of an exam.

The simplified form 题 and the traditional form 題 differ only in the left phonetic: simplified uses 是 directly, while the fuller traditional shape preserves the same component beside 页. The 页 head-radical is unchanged in both, which is why every sense of 题 still circles back to the idea of the heading, the top line, the thing put forward to be read.

Three senses branch from that heading at the top:

1. A question or problem. The item set out to be solved: 问题 wèntí (question; problem), 题目 tímù (exam question; title), 难题 nántí (hard problem), 习题 xítí (practice exercises).
2. A topic, theme, or title. The subject a piece of writing or talk is organized around: 话题 huàtí (topic of conversation), 主题 zhǔtí (theme), 标题 biāotí (headline; title).
3. To inscribe. To brush words onto a surface, the act of writing the heading itself: 题字 tízì (to inscribe), 题诗 tíshī (to inscribe a poem).

The thread through all three is the heading placed where the eye lands first: the question at the top of the page, the theme that names the whole, the inscription brushed across the front of a scroll or wall.

Beyond its life as a noun, 题 is also a verb: to brush words onto a surface. The sense reaches straight back to the original meaning of the heading written at the top. When a calligrapher 题字 tízì, they inscribe characters onto a painting, a fan, a plaque, or a wall, and when a poet 题诗 tíshī, they write a poem directly onto a scroll or a temple beam. A related word, 题词 tící, is a written dedication, the few brushed lines an honored guest leaves on a visitors' book or a gift.

This verbal 题 carries a flavor of ceremony. To be invited to 题 something is to be asked to add your hand and name to it, and the inscription becomes part of the object's worth. Many famous paintings carry layers of later 题字 from collectors and emperors, each addition a heading laid over the work by a new reader.

Anchor 题 on its head-radical 页, the forehead at the top of a page. Everything 题 means lives up there at the heading. The question stands at the top of the exam sheet (问题, 题目). The theme is the heading that names a whole work (话题, 主题, 标题). And the inscription is the heading a brush lays across the front of a scroll (题字, 题诗).

The tone is steady: 题 is always second tone, tí, a rising note like a question lifting at the end. When you see the 页 head on the right, picture the line written at the top of the page, and you will land on the right sense: the thing put forward to be read, asked, or answered.