万分
wàn fēn · HSK 7
extremely
💯 万 = ten thousand + 分 = part; ten-thousand parts = to the extreme
万 means ten thousand (a stand-in for a huge count) and 分 means part or fraction. Stacked together they mean by ten-thousand parts, i.e. extremely or very much, the way English says a thousand thanks.
万 — top 一 + 𠃌 (hook) over 丿
Originally a pictograph of a scorpion, used in oracle bone script. It was borrowed phonetically to mean 'ten thousand' and the original scorpion sense was lost. The traditional form 萬 shows the scorpion more clearly; 万 is a simplified variant long used as a common shorthand.
分 — knife 刀 + eight 八 (split apart)
分 originally depicted a knife (刀) cutting something into two parts, shown by 八 above (which itself meant 'divide'). The core sense is 'to divide' or 'split', from which extended meanings like 'portion', 'minute', and 'part' developed. Pronounced fèn, it carries the sense of an allotted share.