Big Radical (大) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
大 is the big radical. It appears in 24 of the most common Chinese characters — these 12 are the ones worth learning first, and the worksheet below gives every one of them a pinyin header, a stroke-by-stroke model and blank Tianzige grids to copy into.
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What does 大 mean?
Big radical · 大 dà · 3 strokes · big, large
It usually appears at the top or bottom of the character. The Origin column below shows what each character's parts do — many take their meaning from the radical, some take their sound from the other half.
Shapes: 大
大 itself: A man 人 with outstretched arms
12 common characters with 大
Ranked by how often they appear in real written Chinese. Every character links to its own page with a stroke-order animation and example words.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 天 | tiān | [measure word for time] day | The heavens 一 above a man 大 |
| 因 | yīn | because of, as a result of, according to | |
| 头 | tóu | head; end | high |
| 太 | tài | too, excessively; very | A giant 大 with a normal-sized man 丶 for scale |
| 美 | měi | beautiful, pretty | A person 大 wearing an elegant crown 羊 |
| 类 | lèi | [measure word for a class of similar persons or things] category, kind, sort | |
| 达 | dá | attain, reach; amount to | 大 supplies the sound |
| 参 | cān | used in 参差 | 彡 supplies the sound |
| 夫 | fū | husband; manual labourer | A man 大 wearing a coming-of-age hairpin 一 |
| 套 | tào | [measure word for a group of associated things] set; suit; suite | A man 大 wrapped in a long 镸 cloth |
| 奇 | qí | strange; odd (number) | A person 大 riding a horse 可 |
| 奖 | jiǎng | prize, award | 丬 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
- 士Scholar radical · shì8 common characters · scholar
- 夂Follow radical · zhǐ11 common characters · to follow; to go slowly
- 夕Evening radical · xī10 common characters · evening; sunset
- 女Woman radical · nǚ33 common characters · woman, female
- 子Child radical · zǐ14 common characters · child; seed
- 宀Roof radical · mián39 common characters · a roof
Create Your Own Chinese Worksheet
The download above is fixed; the generator is not. Turn any character list, sentence or textbook section into a printable worksheet — grid style, paper size and header are yours to pick.