The compound word **顶多 (dǐngduō)** is formed through the combination of two distinct characters: **顶 (dǐng)**, which originally means "top," "peak," or "utmost," serving to indicate a limit or extreme, and **多 (duō)**, meaning "much" or "many." When fused, the literal sense of "utmost much" evolves idiomatically into an adverbial expression meaning "at most," "at best," or "no more than," used to set an upper boundary or maximum estimate in a statement, thereby conveying a sense of limitation or a capped possibility.