páng
adjective #8,288

Meanings

  1. 1 huge; enormous
  2. 2 Pang (Chinese surname)

Examples

HSK 4
Zhè shì yīgè pángdà de gōngchéng.
This is a massive project.
HSK 7-9
Tāmen miànlín zhe pángdà de zhàiwù.
They face enormous debt.

Tips

usage
rarely appears alone - it's almost always in compounds like 庞大 (enormous), 庞然大物 (a colossus/behemoth), or as a surname.

Components

radical
广 yǎn
shelter; roof
Outer shelter radical - the indexing radical, picturing a sloping roof anchored to a wall. Anchors in the building/structure family with shop, storehouse, hall, temple. Frames the entry as something housed under a great roof.
phonetic
lóng
dragon
Inside (simplified from ) supplies the sound lóng → páng via historical drift. The dragon image also reinforces 'huge, imposing' - a dragon-sized creature under a great roof gives a strong mnemonic for 'enormous.' Same simplified phonetic family: cage, gather, deaf.

In Pop Culture

Páng Tǒng
Pang Tong
Three Kingdoms strategist - nicknamed 'Fledgling Phoenix'.

Stroke Order

páng