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天才 (tiān cái) — talent; gift; genius (a person of exceptional ability)

Definition

天才 emphasizes exceptional, almost innate ability — a 'genius', often a person. 才 alone is a suffix meaning talent in general (天才, 奇才); 才华/才能 refer to a person's developed ability rather than innate genius.

noun
talentgiftgenius (a person of exceptional ability)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 天才，。
    Tā zhēn shì gè tiān cái, xiǎo xiǎo nián jì jiù xiě chū le zhè me hǎo de xiǎo shuō.
    He's really a genius, writing such a good novel at such a young age.
  • 天才。
    Tā de yīn yuè tiān cái ràng suǒ yǒu lǎo shī dōu gǎn dào jīng yà.
    Her musical talent surprised all the teachers.
  • 天才。
    Zhè ge tiān cái de fā míng gǎi biàn le shì jiè.
    This genius's invention changed the world.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

天tiānheavenly
才cáitalent

天 (heavenly) and 才 (talent) suggest a talent as if given by heaven.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
大大dà
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng天tiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape comes from a frontal standing man 大 with a head; 天 pairs 大 with 丁 for sound.

Open 天 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

才 originally drew a sharp peg, not a sprout growing from the ground.

Open 才 →
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