小说 (xiǎo shuō)

Character breakdown

• 小 (xiǎo) · 3 strokes

  Depicts three small dots, representing the meaning "small". Originally the same character as 少. The small dots possibly represent grains of sand (沙).

• 说 (shuì) · 9 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 兑 represents the sound.