(): merchant, to buy

() is a Chinese character meaning “merchant.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2019 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, money. Its radical form (shell) appears in many related characters such as (guì, abbr. for Guizhou Province 貴州|贵州[Gui4 zhou1]), (, to bear), (, responsibility).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. merchant
  2. to buy

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿱覀贝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lā jiǎ sī tǎn bāngRajasthan (state in India)
nèi jiǎ déMahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956-), Iranian fundamentalist politician, president of Iran 2005-2013
jiǎ nán dé lāGyanendra of Nepal
fù shāng dà gǔtycoon
duō qián shàn gǔmuch capital, good business (idiom)
·shǐ tí fū · jiǎ bó sīSteve Jobs (1955-2011), US co-founder and CEO of Apple, Inc.
lǐ jiǎ nàRegina city, capital of Saskatchewan province, Canada
jiǎ dì chóng bìngGiardiasis, a form of gastro-enteritis caused by infection of gut by Giardia lamblia protozoan parasite
lā fū sāng jiǎ níAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
yú yǒng kě gǔlit. spare valor for sale (idiom)
ā bù jiǎAbuja, capital of Nigeria
jiǎ dì chóng shǔGiardia lamblia protozoan parasite that inhabits the gut
ài hā mài dí nèi jiǎ déAhmadinejad or Ahmadinezhad (Persian name)
fù shāng jù gǔtycoon
jiǎ bó sīJobs (name)
29
Total compounds
48
As first character
24
As last character
28
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 48 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 28 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

ěr
0.40912,090 co-occurrences
bǎo
0.4052,346 co-occurrences
0.400528 co-occurrences
0.39511,166 co-occurrences
yuè
0.391786 co-occurrences
sāng
0.3881,710 co-occurrences
āo
0.387474 co-occurrences
mài
0.377816 co-occurrences
0.3773,048 co-occurrences
0.3712,160 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

duō qián shàn gǔHSK 7+

much capital, good business (idiom); fig. good trading conditions

phrase
ĒnjiǎméinàHSK 7+

N'Djamena (the capital city of Chad)

fùshāngdàgǔHSK 7+

wealthy merchant; tycoon; magnate

phrase
fùshāngjùgǔHSK 7+

synonym of 富商大賈 /富商大贾 (fùshāngdàgǔ)

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

云集,这个市场非常繁华。

Shānggǔ yúnjí, zhè gè shìchǎng fēicháng fánhuá.

Merchants gather; this market is very prosperous.

NewsFeb 2026

...后代对决蒋氏后代? 遭酸舔绿为选北市长 永婕发声了

. . . hòu dài duì jué 蒋 shì hòu dài ? zāo suān tiǎn lǜ wéi xuǎn běi shì cháng gǔ yǒng 婕 fā shēng le

... Descendants vs. Jiang descendants? Jia Yongjie spoke out for the election of the mayor of Beijing

NewsFeb 2026

国战会论坛》永婕借历史表态 不会获得正义(王昆义)

guó zhàn huì lùn tán gǔ yǒng 婕 jiè lì shǐ biǎo tài bù huì huò dé zhèng yì wáng kūn yì

National War Conference Forum" Jia Yongjie used history to express that she would not get justice (Wang Kunyi)

NewsFeb 2026

台北101风水池民众提桶装 永婕急喊话

tái běi fēng shuǐ chí mín zhòng tí tǒng zhuāng gǔ yǒng 婕 jí hǎn huà

Taipei 101's Feng Shui Pond: Residents Scoop Water into Buckets; Jia Yongjie Urgently Issues Warning

NewsFeb 2026

永婕拒在蒋公前合照 1话遭亏会被枪毙

gǔ yǒng 婕 jù zài 蒋 gōng qián gě zhào huà zāo kuī huì bèi qiāng bì

Jia Yongjie Refuses to Pose for Photo with Chiang Kai-shek One Remark Earns Her a Jibe: "You'd Be Shot"

Tatoeba

亚在阿尔及利亚。

Bèi gǔ yà zài ā'ěrjílìyà.

Bejaia is in Algeria.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 贾 (gǔ) mean in Chinese?
贾 (gǔ) primarily means "merchant." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2019 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 贾 and 销?
贾 (gǔ) and 销 (xiāo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 贾 (buy) vs 销 (sell).
How many strokes does 贾 have?
贾 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 贾?
The radical associated with 贾 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 贾?
贾 is composed of: 覀 (phonetic), 贝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱覀贝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 贾?
Common words with 贾 include: 拉贾斯坦邦 (lā jiǎ sī tǎn bāng, "Rajasthan (state in India)"); 内贾德 (nèi jiǎ dé, "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956-), Iranian fundamentalist politician, president of Iran 2005-2013"); 贾南德拉 (jiǎ nán dé lā, "Gyanendra of Nepal"); 富商大贾 (fù shāng dà gǔ, "tycoon"); 多钱善贾 (duō qián shàn gǔ, "much capital, good business (idiom)"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
Is 贾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 贾 and the traditional form is 賈.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.