顶多
dǐng duō · HSK 7
at most
🔝 dǐng (top/peak) + duō (many) = the top amount, so at most
The top (顶) of how many (多) there can be — a ceiling on quantity. When you say 顶多三天, you mean three days is the absolute cap.
顶 — 页 (head) + 丁 (phonetic)
顶 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 页 component, originally a pictograph of a head, gives the meaning — the top of the head, hence 'top' or 'peak.' The 丁 component supplies the sound (dīng → dǐng). It later extended to verbs like 'support from below' or 'carry on the head.'
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.