Several parts combine into one character.

制 originally depicted the act of carving wood with a knife (刂) to shape it into a specific form. From this concrete craft action grew a clean abstraction chain: to carve into shape → to make according to a fixed pattern → to regulate / institute. The character documents the transition from physical craft to political abstraction in a single semantic arc.

Korean reading "je." 制度 (jedo, system / institution — used for political, educational, and economic systems), 制限 (jehan, restriction / limit — speed limits, age limits), 制服 (jebok, uniform — Korean schools, military, corporate), 制作 (jejak, production / fabrication — used for film, art, manufacturing), 體制 (cheje, regime / system — political vocabulary), 專制 (jeonje, autocracy / despotism), 抑制 (eokje, suppression / restraint). 제 anchors Korean institutional vocabulary across every domain.

Mandarin zhì, 4th tone. 制 (zhì), 制度 (zhìdù, system), 制造 (zhìzào, "to fabricate" = manufacturing — 中国制造 Zhōngguó zhìzào "Made in China"), 控制 (kòngzhì, to control), 制定 (zhìdìng, to formulate / establish — used for laws and policies), 体制 (tǐzhì, system / regime). Modern Chinese political vocabulary leans heavily on 制 in compounds.

Japanese on-reading セイ (sei) — 制度 (seido, system), 制限 (seigen, limit), 制作 (seisaku, production), 制服 (seifuku, uniform — central to Japanese school identity; the standard schoolgirl uniform セーラー服 sailor-fuku is iconic), 体制 (taisei, regime / system — political vocabulary). 強制 (kyōsei, "strong-regulation" = compulsion / coercion) is also high-frequency. Japan has essentially no kun-reading for 制; the on-reading セイ dominates.

Memory aid: a knife (刂) carving wood into a specific shape — making, regulating, instituting.