太陽
たいよう · taiyou · JLPT N3 · noun
sun
☀️ 太陽 = great + sunny side (yang); taiyou: tie your sun up high
太 means great or very big and 陽 is the yang side, the sunny light, as in yin-yang. So the sun is the great yang. The reading taiyou sounds like tie-yo, as in tie your kite to the sun.
太 — 大 'big' + extra dot 丶
太 originally derived from 大 ('big, person with arms outstretched') with an added stroke to mean 'greatest' or 'too much'. The extra dot intensifies 大, signaling something beyond merely big. Over time it came to mean 'very', 'too', or 'highest'.