伟

偉
wěi
adjective #9,766

Meanings

  1. 1 great; mighty
  2. 2 grand; magnificent

Examples

HSK 1
Tā shì yígè wěidà de rén.
He is a great person.
HSK 5
Chángchéng shì wěidà de jiànzhù.
The Great Wall is a magnificent structure.

Tips

usage
伟 is mainly seen in 伟大 (great/mighty) and in personal names. It was one of the most popular characters in Chinese male names for decades. Also used in 宏伟 (grand/magnificent).

Components

radical
亻 rén
person (left-side radical form of 人)
Left person radical - the side-form of 人, a walking figure compressed into two strokes. The indexing radical, marking 伟 as a quality describing a person: great, mighty, magnificent. Same radical groups 伟 with 仁 (benevolent), 信 (trustworthy), 健 (robust), 优 (excellent) - almost all human-trait adjectives sit here.
phonetic
韦 wěi
tanned leather (simplified from 韋, here phonetic)
Right 韦 supplies the sound directly - wěi matches the whole reading. Simplified from 韋, which depicted feet circling a city (originally 'to encircle', source of 围). Same phonetic feeds 围 (surround), 违 (defy), 苇 (reed), 纬 (latitude) - all in the wéi/wěi family. Purely sound-bearing in 伟.

Stroke Order

伟 wěi