Chinese Character Wiki
財

cái

wealth

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 才 represents the sound.

Components
貝 meaning component

貝  Meaning component

bèi

  

sea shell

In ancient China, shells were used as currency.

才 sound component

才  Sound component

cái

  

talent

Evolution

財 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
財 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
財 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
財 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

财 (財) 

cái

wealth, valuables, riches; money; wealth; riches; property; valuables

Most common words with 財
Freq.
Word
Meaning

财产

property

财富

wealth

财务

financial affairs

财政

financial

财

money

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[dz]ˤə

dzoj

cái

wealth


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 26.0612% of movies

1200th most common character in movies

680th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Simplified

财

Unicode

U+8CA1

Shuowen

“財，人所寶也。从貝，才聲。”


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