■ radical
dōu
all
How it’s built
Phonosemantic compound. ⻏ represents the meaning and 者 represents the sound. Based on the meaning "large city, capital", which is the meaning when pronounced "dū". When pronounced "dōu", it has the unrelated meaning "all", etymologically related to 多 (many).
⻏
meaning
area; city — ⻏ is a component form of 邑.
者
sound
-er; [one that...] — The pronunciation of 都 was similar to 者 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.