Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

売: sell

JLPT N47 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

士 carries the meaning · 買 gives the sound

7 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

バイbai · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 売買するばいばいするtrade
  • 商売するしょうばいするdo business
  • 発売するはつばいするput a product on the market
  • 売店ばいてんshop, kiosk

うるuru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 売るうるsell
  • 売り切れうりきれsold-out
  • 売り場うりばsales floor

Also read うれる, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Ideogrammic compound (會意)出 go out (meaning) + 買 buy (sound)

Originally 𧷓, an ideogrammic compound (會意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 出 (“go out”) + phonetic 買 (“buy”).

Source: Wiktionary, 賣 (rev. 93437273), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Samurai (士) + legs/movement. Originally related to a "scholar" or official moving goods or "selling" their services; now the standard kanji for the act of selling.”
From the 士 man story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
士

Also built on man (士)

All 8

売 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read バイ

12 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
売 sell · 買
vs壱 one (in documents) · 吉
売 has 買 where 壱 has 吉.
In ChineseSimplified 卖 · traditional 賣 · mài

Three different forms: Japanese 売, simplified 卖, traditional 賣.

Simplified
卖 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
賣 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin mài most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

One click tells us. No sign-up.