牛

The character 牛 is a pictogram originally depicting the head of a cow.

Characters that use 牛 as their radical are closely related to cattle or oxen and animals associated with them.

In modern Chinese, 牛 is also frequently used with the meaning of "great" or "awesome."

It is easily confused with 午 (the character for "noon"). To distinguish them: if the vertical stroke on top extends outwards, it is 牛 (cow), and if it does not, it is 午 (noon). To help differentiate, people often imagine the protruding stroke on 牛 as a cow's horn. However, analysis of the character's origin shows that this protruding stroke does not actually represent a horn.