What does 太 mean in Chinese?

太 (tài) means "too" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 1.

How do you write 太?

太 is written with 4 strokes, starting from the 大 (big) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 太?

The radical of 太 is 大 (big, Kangxi radical #37). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 大, 天, 头.

How many strokes does 太 have?

The Chinese character 太 has 4 strokes.

What HSK level is 太?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 太 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

太 (tài): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

太

tài

too

HSK 1 character 4 strokes Radical: 大 (big)

Quick Answer

太 (tài) means "too" with 4 strokes, radical 大 (big), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 太 →Animated stroke-order for 太 →

Pronunciation

tài

Meaning

Primary: too

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

太 has no independent oracle bone form. It is a later differentiation of 大 (a person standing with arms outstretched), with an added dot below to mark an intensified or superlative reading. The dot is a diacritic-like indicator rather than a pictograph of anything concrete.

Form evolution

Early seal forms write the character essentially as 大 with a small stroke or dot added underneath, and some bronze and seal variants use 泰 as the fuller written form. Clerical script settles the small mark as a single dot at the lower right of 大, and 楷书 standardises this into the modern 太. The relationship 大 → 太 → 泰 is a chain of graphic and semantic intensification.

How the meaning evolved

Originally a graphic intensifier of 大 meaning very great or extreme, 太 came to mean highest, most senior, or excessive. It survives in titles such as 太子 crown prince and 太后 empress dowager, and in cosmological terms like 太极 the supreme ultimate. In modern Mandarin its dominant use is the adverb meaning too or excessively, as in 太贵了 too expensive.

Cultural note

Learners often confuse 太, 大, and 犬 (dog), which differ only by the position of a single dot. The Daoist concept 太极, familiar in the West through tai chi, literally names the supreme polarity from which yin and yang emerge.

Mnemonic

Greater than big — too much

Decomposition

太=大radical+丶component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	tài
Meanings	too
Stroke count	4 strokes
Radical	大 (#37: big)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1
Frequency	#475 most common

Example sentences

太好了！
Tài hǎo le!
Too good!
From 太 (HSK 1)
太阳出来了。
Tàiyáng chūlái le.
The sun came out.
From 太阳 (HSK 3)
很多老人早上在公园练太极拳。
Hěnduō lǎorén zǎoshang zài gōngyuán liàn tàijíquán.
Many elderly people practice Tai Chi in the park in the morning.
From 太极拳