额(é) - forehead, a fixed amount in Mandarin

额 (é) starts life as the forehead. In everyday speech people usually say 额头 (é tóu) for that part of the body, and the bare 额 turns up mostly in writing or in set phrases.

The busier modern meaning is a fixed quantity of something: 金额 an amount of money, 销售额 sales figures, 贷款额 a loan amount, 额度 a credit limit or quota. Any time a number has been agreed in advance, this character is likely to be in the word for it.

Two traps. First, the character also gets typed as a hesitation noise in chat, standing in for the sound English writes as er, so a message beginning 额 is somebody stalling rather than talking about foreheads. Second, do not confuse it with 领 (lǐng) or 顿 (dùn); the 页 element on the right is shared by a whole family of characters and it is the left half that tells them apart.