Chinese Character Wiki
买

mǎi

buy

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网). The simplified character 买 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 買.

Components
网 iconic,simplified component

网  Iconic Simplified component

wǎng

  

net

头 simplified component

头  Simplified component

tóu, tou

  

head

Shorthand for the 貝 component in the traditional character 買. Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Evolution

买 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
买 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
买 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

买 (買) 

mǎi

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

Most common words with 买
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)

卖

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

卖 荬

Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 73.4743% of movies

388th most common character in movies

758th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Traditional

買

Unicode

U+4E70


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