In mainland China, 兆 means million (10⁶) in computing contexts. In Taiwan, it means trillion (10¹²). This causes confusion in cross-strait technical discussions.
The bottom legs-shape is the indexing Kangxi radical 儿. The oracle-crack pictograph was reanalyzed so its bottom strokes resembled 儿 (person on legs), placing 兆 in the legs-radical lookup family despite having no original connection to walking.
pictograph
兆zhào
omen; portent; oracle cracks
The four cracking strokes picture the splintering pattern that appeared on an ancestral oracle bone or tortoise plastron after fire-divination. These crack-lines were read as portents, giving 兆 its 'omen, sign, foreshadow' meaning and its numerical use for 'million/trillion'.
