HSK Guide

Radical 37big, large; greatly

(fourth tone, falling)

big, large; greatly

Radical 373 strokes2 characters

Where the shape comes from

A person seen from the front, arms out and legs apart. To say "big", the script drew a human being at full stretch — the largest thing it could point to. Lay a line above the head and you have 天 the sky; put a dot underneath and you have 太 "excessively". It heads 天, 太, 头, 夫 and 奋.