太tài

太

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Simplified · Today

简体

Simplified Chinese

Simplified form (簡體). 太 (tài, "extreme, too") combines the pictograph 大 (dà, "big") with an added dot — some scholars interpret this as the sun at its apex, emphasizing greatness beyond the ordinary. Though identical in both scripts, the character carries ancient weight as a fusion of "big" and "heavenly" that has defined "too much" and "supreme" for millennia.

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Shuowen

太 consists of the pictogram 大 (a person with arms spread) plus a small dot, the latter originally a distinguishing mark indicating excess or surpassing the ordinary; in oracle bone script the character already conveyed the sense of “great” or “too much”, and the dot was added to differentiate it from 大. The structure thus reflects the idea of something beyond the simple notion of size, giving rise to modern meanings such as “extreme”, “very”, and “excessive”.

Pinyin

tài· HSK 1

太tài

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin