音読み: キョ
訓読み: none*
画数: 5
部首: 工（たくみ）
Meaning
Gigantic / Huge / Large
- 巨大 — gigantic; enormous
- 巨人 — giant; great person
- 巨額 — huge sum of money
- 巨匠 — master; great artist
- 巨星 — giant star; great figure
巨 is a simple character with strong imagery. It originally showed a hand gripping something large, later simplified into its present form. The meaning of giant or huge comes from this sense of holding something vast in scale.
At first glance, 巨 looks like a box radical (はこがまえ), but it isn’t enclosing anything. Its radical is actually 工 — the symbol of construction or craft. Picture 工 stretched wide inside the shape, giving 巨 the sense of something large, massive, constructed. That’s why 巨 means “gigantic, huge.
Forms
巨大 — gigantic; huge