Chinese Character Wiki
買

mǎi

buy

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网).

Components
网 iconic component

网  Iconic component

wǎng

  

net

貝 iconic component

貝  Iconic component

bèi

  

sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Evolution

買 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
買 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
買 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
買 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
買 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

买 (買) 

mǎi

buy, purchase; bribe, persuade; to buy; to purchase

Most common words with 買
Freq.
Word
Meaning

买

to buy

购买

to buy

买卖

business

买入

to buy (finance)

买家

buyer

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

賣

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

賣 蕒

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*mˤrajʔ

meaX

mǎi

buy


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 73.4743% of movies

388th most common character in movies

758th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

12

Simplified

买𧹒

Unicode

U+8CB7

Shuowen

“買，市也。从网、貝。《孟子》曰：‘登壟斷而网市利。’”


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