昌

chāng
adjective #15,002

Meanings

  1. 1 prosperous
  2. 2 flourishing

Examples

HSK 5
Nánchāng shì Jiāngxī shěng de shěnghuì.
Nanchang is the capital city of Jiangxi province.
HSK 7-9
Guójiā chāngshèng, rénmín ānlè.
The country is prosperous and the people are at peace.

Tips

memory
Two 日 (sun) stacked - double brightness means prosperity.

Components

radical
日 rì
sun; day
Top sun radical, four strokes - a rectangle with one horizontal inside, the disc of the sun. Anchors 昌 in the brightness family. With the speaking-mouth below, the character originally meant 'bright speech, fair words,' from which came 'flourishing, prosperous.' Same sun family: 明 (bright), 时 (time), 春 (spring).
semantic
曰 yuē
to say; speak
Bottom 曰 - wider and squatter than 日, a mouth with a horizontal tongue or breath-line inside, meaning 'to say.' Below the sun, 昌 reads as 'speech in broad daylight' - open, bright, clear. From that came 'flourishing,' as in the surname 昌 and place name 昌平.

Stroke Order

昌 chāng