昊 (hào): the vast sky

Meanings

1 the vast sky
2 boundless heaven (literary)
3 (also) surname Hao

Characters

昊

hào

vast sky

Examples

昊天罔极。

Hào tiān wǎng jí.

Heaven is boundless. (classical phrase, often used to describe parents' kindness)

他给儿子取名叫昊宇。

Tā gěi érzi qǔmíng jiào Hào yǔ.

He named his son Haoyu (literally 'vast sky and universe').

Tips

memory

Visual etymology: 日 (sun) on top of 天 (sky) — a sun in a vast sky. Mostly used today as a given-name character to evoke grandeur (昊天, 昊宇, 浩昊), and in classical phrases like 昊天罔极 (Book of Songs).

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Top sun radical — pictograph of the sun (originally a circle with a dot inside), the indexing component. Sits above 天 sky to picture the sun blazing in the heavens. Same radical heads 时 time, 明 bright, 春 spring — anything tied to sunlight or day.

semantic

天 tiān

sky; heaven

Below 天 — pictograph of a person 大 with the great expanse above the head emphasised, meaning 'sky, heaven.' Together with 日 above, 昊 paints 'sun in the vast sky' — the wide, brilliant summer sky, classically the limitless heavens. The character is rare in modern speech, common as a given name conveying boundlessness.