It starts with one body part: the ear, אֹזֶן. From there the root branches in two directions you would not expect to meet. One branch is listening: you lend your ear, you tune in. The other is balance: two ears, two pans of a scale, weighing one side against the other. So the same three letters give you headphones, attentive listening, and the act of balancing a budget. Every word below is verified against pealim, niqqud included.
The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.
No simple pa'al verb is in everyday use here; the root works through the heavier moulds. The pi'el carries the balance sense (to even out), while the hif'il carries the listening sense (to lend an ear, to tune in). The two meanings sit in two different binyanim, which is why the root feels split.
Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.
Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.