(wěi): big, large, great

(wěi) is a Chinese character meaning “big.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1106 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. big
  2. large
  3. great

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻韦 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivewěi dàhuge5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
wěi réngreat person
hóng wěigrand
xióng wěigrand
dà wěiDavid (name)
wěi gēViagra (male impotence drug)
fēng gōng wěi jìglorious achievement (idiom)
wěi yèexploit
wěi ànimposing
wěi lìmighty force
wěi jìgreat acts
yīng wěi dáNVIDIA, computer graphics card company
jū gōng zhì wěisee 厥功至偉|厥功至伟[jue2 gong1 zhi4 wei3]
wěi guānmagnificent vista
wěi qìgreat talent
qí wěisingular and majestic
28
Total compounds
46
As first character
36
As last character
18
As middle character

appears in 28 compound words: 46 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 18 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

hóng
0.5338,848 co-occurrences
chén
0.4496,258 co-occurrences
zhāng
0.4357,914 co-occurrences
liú
0.4194,188 co-occurrences
0.41949,801 co-occurrences
zhào
0.4182,712 co-occurrences
miǎo
0.418222 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.4172,322 co-occurrences
yīng
0.41523 co-occurrences
0.4042,460 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

fēnggōngwěijìHSK 5+

great contributions and accomplishments

phrase
juégōngzhìwěiHSK 5+

to have made significant contributions to a project or cause

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他是一位大的科学家,为人类做出了巨大贡献。

Tā shì yī wèi wěidà de kēxuéjiā, wèi rénlèi zuò chū le jùdà gòngxiàn.

He is a great scientist who has made tremendous contributions to humanity.

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

智:人生还在战斗的九把刀─《功夫》是不是...

chén wěi zhì : rén shēng hái zài zhàn dǒu de jiǔ bǎ dāo gōng fū shì bù shì . . .

Chen Weizhi: The nine knives that are still fighting in life - "Kung Fu" is...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

宏福苑|管浩鸣关注收购尺价逾万元点计?黄纶:支援少少钱装修

hóng fú 苑 guǎn hào míng guān zhù shōu gòu chǐ jià yú wàn yuán diǎn jì ? huáng wěi 纶 : zhī yuán shǎo shǎo qián zhuāng xiū

Guan Haoming pays attention to the purchase price of more than 10,000 yuan? Huang Weilun: Support a little money for decoration

StheadlineFeb 2026

沙田早晨│巫杰大举练兵

shā tián zǎo chén wū wěi jié dà jǔ liàn bīng

Sha Tin Morning│Wu Weijie conducted large-scale military training

百度新闻Feb 2026

达美股盘前涨近2%

yīng wěi dá měi gǔ pán qián zhǎng jìn

NVIDIA's U.S. stock rises nearly 2% in premarket

Tatoeba

他无庸置疑是个大的艺术家。

Tā wúyōng zhìyí shì gè wěidà de yìshùjiā.

It is clear that he is a great artist.

Tatoeba

一名大的战士威力显著,无需抵死奋战。

Yī míng wěidà de zhànshì wēilì xiǎnzhù, wúxū dǐ sǐ fènzhàn.

A great warrior radiates strength. He doesn't have to fight to the death.

Tatoeba

矮人们是大的铁匠。

ǎirénmen shì wěidà de tiějiang.

The dwarves are great smiths.

Tatoeba

芭蕉是最大的诗人。

Bājiāo shì zuì wěidà de shīrén.

Basho was the greatest poet.

Tatoeba

他是古今无匹的大政治家。

Tā shì gǔjīn-wúpǐ de wěidà zhèngzhìjiā.

He is the greatest statesman that ever lived.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced wěi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 伟 (wěi) mean in Chinese?
伟 (wěi) primarily means "big." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1106 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 伟 and 些?
伟 (wěi) and 些 (xiē) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 伟 (big) vs 些 (small).
How many strokes does 伟 have?
伟 is written with 6 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 伟?
The radical associated with 伟 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 伟?
伟 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 韦 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻韦 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 伟?
Common words with 伟 include: 伟大 (wěi dà, "huge"); 伟人 (wěi rén, "great person"); 宏伟 (hóng wěi, "grand"); 雄伟 (xióng wěi, "grand"); 大伟 (dà wěi, "David (name)"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 伟 (wěi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wěi: 围 (to encircle), 纬 (latitude), 危 (danger), 微 (ancient Chinese state near present-day Chongqing), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 伟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 伟 and the traditional form is 偉.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.