The Chinese word **大米 (dàmǐ)**, meaning "husked rice" or the staple grain, is a compound noun formed through semantic modification. The first character **大 (dà)** means "big" or "large," and the second character **米 (mǐ)** means "rice" or "grain." Together, **大米** specifically denotes the larger, husked, and edible rice grains that are ready for cooking, as opposed to **小米 (xiǎomǐ**, "millet," literally "small rice") or the uncooked rice plant (**稻谷 dàogǔ**). This structure follows a common pattern in Chinese where an adjective qualifies a noun to create a more specific term, with "big" here descriptively distinguishing the final food product from other smaller or unprocessed grains.