大 (dà): big

Meanings

1 big
2 large
3 great
4 old (age)

Characters

大

dà

big; large

Person with arms stretched wide — something big

Examples

这个房间很大。

Zhège fángjiān hěn dà.

This room is very big.

你多大了？

Nǐ duō dà le?

How old are you?

大家好！

Dàjiā hǎo!

Hello everyone!

Tips

memory

大 is a pictograph of a person (人) with arms stretched wide, showing something big.

Components

ideograph

一 yī

outstretched arms

Top horizontal — the arms stretched wide, gesturing 'this big'.

semantic

人 rén

person

Person figure underneath — body and legs viewed from the front. Strict etymology says 大 is one pictograph of a frontal-stance person, but visually it splits cleanly into 一 + 人.

Radical

Big Kangxi #37

The 大 radical, a pictograph of a person with arms outstretched. Indexes characters about people, scale, or magnitude: 天, 太, 央, 夫, 头, 奇, 套, 奖. Common as the top component but a frequent semantic anchor wherever it appears.