The character 大 (dà): big

On a cream ground, the character 大 in very dark brown stands in front of a large glowing yellow disc of sun that fills the middle of the picture. The character is wide and heavy: a short vertical at the top, a long horizontal bar across it, and two strokes that sweep out from the crossing to the lower left and the lower right. Below the character, tiny and pale yellow, the silhouette of a person standing with both arms held straight out to the sides.

Pronunciation: dà
Strokes: 3
Level: HSK1

What it means

big; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐[da4jie3]); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother)

Where its shape comes from

The graph shows a person seen from the FRONT, where 人 shows one from the side. The contrast is an old one, and Chinese commentators had already remarked on it. Its first sense is thought to have been "adult", as against a child, with "big" following from that. Whether the arms are flung wide is another matter: several specialists read them as hanging down in the early forms.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE) and Duan Yucai's commentary (1815); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

How it used to be written

Oracle bone script 商
Clerical script 東漢
See all 16 forms

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

A way to remember it

Take the two legs of 人 and lay a bar across them at shoulder height: someone throwing their arms wide open. The middle stroke pokes out above the bar, and without that small piece showing at the top you no longer have 大.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

大家 dà jiā · HSK1 everyone; influential family; great expert
大学 dà xué · HSK1 university; college; CL:所[suo3]
大学生 dà xué shēng · HSK1 university student; college student
大小 dà xiǎo · HSK3 large and small; size; adults and children; consideration of seniority; at any rate
大概 dà gài · HSK3 roughly; probably; rough; approximate; about; general idea
大人 dà ren · HSK3 adult; grownup; title of respect toward superiors

See the 84 HSK words built on 大, grouped by level.

Writing it

See the stroke order of 大, animated stroke by stroke.