tài
noun #13,329

Meanings

  1. 1 titanium (chemical element, Ti)

Examples

HSK 5
Tài héjīn bèi guǎngfàn yòngyú hángkōng gōngyè.
Titanium alloy is widely used in the aviation industry.
HSK 6
Zhè fù yǎnjìng shì chún tài de, fēicháng qīng.
These glasses are made of pure titanium and are very light.

Tips

memory
has the metal radical (gold/metal) on the left and (tài, great/too) on the right, which also gives the pronunciation. A 'great metal' - titanium is indeed known for its strength.

Components

radical
jīn
metal (radical form of 金)
Metal radical on the left - the side-form of , the indexing radical. Modern element-name characters for metals all wear this radical: iron, copper, silver, aluminium, tungsten. The radical labels as a metallic element on sight.
phonetic
tài
very; supreme
Right side supplies the sound tài directly - a clean Mandarin loan matching the first syllable of 'titanium.' This is the textbook strategy for naming new elements: pick a radical and bolt on the closest-sounding character. carries no semantic weight here.

Stroke Order

tài