多

Derived characters

 * 侈, 𠀲, 哆, 垑, 姼, 㡅, 恀, 拸, 陊, 䏧, 栘, 㶴, 迻, 眵, 移, 䇋, 蛥, 袳, 誃, 趍, 跢, 䡔, 𮠨, 鉹, 夥, 䬷, 夦, 䮈 (𬳾), 黟, 卶, 㩼, 夠(够), 翗, 夡, 㷇, 㚊, 㚌, 㚋, 䫂, 郺, 㚍, 㚉, 奓, 㝖, 爹, 𣆚, 茤, 㗬, 袲, 𭅚, 㞔, 㢁, 扅, 痑

Descendants

 * ( character derived from )

Glyph origin
– two pieces of meat. In the bronze script, was corrupted into  due to visual similarity, making  into a. The form with was inherited in later scripts.

suggests that meat is scarce in ancient times, so two pieces of meat is a lot, citing a passage from :

Chang Ping-chuan suggests that it is the duplicative nature of the character that gives the meaning of "many", just like in, from.

Etymology 1
Etymology unclear. suggests that it is in the same word family as and.

compares it to 🇨🇬,, 🇨🇬. STEDT derives the latter two from 🇨🇬, whose Chinese comparandum is instead;  has also compared it to this etymon.

propose that there may be a prefix in this word that gives a mass noun reading, which may nullify the connection to 🇨🇬. However, may have withdrawn from this theory since they no longer indicate the *t as a prefix.

Also compare 🇨🇬, whence 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, and 🇨🇬. considers the Chinese word to be from 🇨🇬, but others suggest that the direction of borrowing may have been the other way.

Definitions

 * 1) many; much; a lot of; numerous
 * 2)  over; and more; more than
 * 3)  as much as
 * 4)  multiple
 * 5)  much more; a lot more; far more
 * 6) more
 * 7) extra; in excess
 * 8)  how; how much; what
 * 9)  so; how; what
 * 10) to have a lot
 * 11) to have more; to have too much; to have too many
 * 12)  few; little
 * 1)  much more; a lot more; far more
 * 2) more
 * 3) extra; in excess
 * 4)  how; how much; what
 * 5)  so; how; what
 * 6) to have a lot
 * 7) to have more; to have too much; to have too many
 * 8)  few; little
 * 1)  how; how much; what
 * 2)  so; how; what
 * 3) to have a lot
 * 4) to have more; to have too much; to have too many
 * 5)  few; little
 * 1) to have a lot
 * 2) to have more; to have too much; to have too many
 * 3)  few; little
 * 1) to have more; to have too much; to have too many
 * 2)  few; little
 * 1)  few; little
 * 1)  few; little

Usage notes

 * When the number is smaller or equal to 10, 多 can be put after the measure word. If it is bigger than ten, 多 has to be put before the measure word.
 * In Mandarin, 多 is usually placed before the verb, but in Cantonese, it is usually placed after the verb.

Descendants
Others:

Kanji

 * 1) many, much

Prefix

 * 1) multi-