The word 大多 is formed through the conceptual combination of its two component characters: 大 (dà), meaning "big" or "great", and 多 (duō), meaning "many" or "much". Together, they merge to express a composite idea where the sense of large scale from 大 modifies and intensifies the quantity implied by 多, resulting in the meaning of "the great majority", "most", or "for the most part". It is not merely "many", but a "bigness of many", implying a prevailing, extensive quantity within a whole.