How to Write 旲 (tái) — Meaning “great; big (archaic)”

Imagine a giant sun — the top part 日 (sun) is extra large because of the big 大 (big) underneath. You can think of "great sun" to recall that 旲 means "great" or "big."

Start with the 日 radical as a narrow rectangle, then write the horizontal stroke of 大 across the middle, followed by the left and right strokes. Make sure the bottom of 日 aligns with the top of 大, and keep the overall shape balanced — a common mistake is making 日 too wide.

旲 has 大 under 日 meaning "great sun," while 旦 has 一 (one) under 日 meaning "dawn" (sun above the horizon). 旧 (old) has 丨 (a vertical line) inside 日, not below. Their meanings are completely different: 旲 is archaic for "great," 旦 means "dawn," and 旧 means "old."

旲 is extremely rare in modern Chinese and not used in everyday speech or HSK vocabulary. You might encounter it only in ancient texts or classical compound words like 旲旲 (flourishing) or 旲阳 (a variant of 太阳, the sun), but even these are archaic.

Common words containing 旲 include: 旲旲 (tái tái) — great; flourishing (archaic); 旲公 (tái gōng) — great lord (archaic); 旲阳 (tái yáng) — the sun (variant of 太阳).