苔

tāi
#3,100 most
frequent character
used in 舌苔[she2 tai1]

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

苔 pairs 艹, plants, with 台 tái for sound. Read tāi, it first meant 'moss and lichen,' then grew to 'coating on the tongue.' Read tái, it means 'moss and lichen.'

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Same Characters, Different Readings

苔tái
moss, lichen, liverwort

Homophones

胎tāi
fetus, classifier for litters (of puppies etc)

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