满 (mǎn): full

Meanings

1 full
2 satisfied
3 to reach (an age or limit)

Characters

满

mǎn

full; filled

Contains 氵 (water radical) — water filled to the brim.

Examples

杯子满了。

Bēizi mǎn le.

The cup is full.

车上人很满。

Chēshàng rén hěn mǎn.

The bus is very full of people.

他满十八岁了。

Tā mǎn shíbā suì le.

He has turned eighteen.

Tips

usage

满 can mean physically full (水满了, the water is full), figuratively full (人很满, very crowded), or reaching a threshold (满了十八岁, turned 18).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water radical

Left radical 氵 is the three-drop side-form of 水 (water). It marks 满 as a water-state: filled to the brim, water spilling over. Same water radical groups 满 with the liquid family — 河 (river), 海 (sea), 湖 (lake), 流 (flow) — and pinpoints 满 specifically as the 'fullness' state of liquid containment.

semantic

艹 cǎo

grass radical

Top-right 艹 here is the upper portion of the right-side phonetic 㒼 (mán). It sits as a 'grass cap' visually but historically belongs to a fused phonetic stack — together with 两 below it spells out the 'covered' sound. Recognising 艹 as the top of this phonetic block helps you read 瞒 (mán, deceive) and 蹒 (pán, stagger) the same way.

phonetic

两 liǎng

two; pair

Bottom-right 两 completes the 㒼 phonetic stack (艹 + 两 ≈ 㒼, mán). Sound is mán → mǎn in 满, a clean phonetic match by tone change only. Together with 艹 above, 两 supplies the 'covering, brimming' family of readings linking 满 (full to brim), 瞒 (cover up = deceive), and 蹒 (stagger as if covered).