购

购 · gòu

buy, purchase; hire

Entry ↗

Meanings & readings

Meaning & readings

buy, purchase; hire

Mandarin
gòu
Cantonese
gau3

Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.

Form & structure

Writing & identity

Unicode
U+8D2D
Radical
贝 · 154
Strokes
8 · Unihan
Residual
4

Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.

Stroke order

8 strokes
购
Strokes
8
Convention
PRC · Make Me a Hanzi

8 strokes in writing order. Play to watch them, or Step through one at a time.

Modern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.

Graphical structure

⿰贝勾(G)
How to read these symbols

⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.

BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.

Words & connections

Words using 购

Character connections

No reverse component match in this collection.

Sentence context · 1 matches

要是你有空的话,我们就去购物吧。

If you have time, let's go shopping.
Source, contributors & licenses

Mandarin: Tatoeba #400600 · Original contributor: FeuDRenais · CC BY 2.0 FR · Attribution log · Current owner: GlossaMatik
English: Tatoeba #400597 · Original contributor: FeuDRenais · CC BY 2.0 FR · Attribution log · Current owner: CM

Source text unchanged. Original contributor and text editors are credited from the source log, separately from the current owner.

Sentence entry · words & provenance ↗
Written-form matches; sense and pronunciation are not automatically aligned. Corpus & selection ↗

History & distinctions

Related forms

購

Unihan traditional/simplified variant properties. Conversion may depend on context.

Sources & reference

Evidence & next depth

Source editions & exact scope ↗
Retained Unihan properties
kMandarin
gòu
kCantonese
gau3
kDefinition
buy, purchase; hire
kTotalStrokes
8
kRSUnicode
154'.4
kTraditionalVariant
U+8CFC
kTGH
2013:1117

Readings across dictionaries

Small numbers locate dictionary entries; 粵 introduces Cantonese. Includes rare or historical readings. Source notation ↗

Reference desk

Sentences in context

Explore 1 example using 购 ↗

Exact source-spelling matches. Open the reader for dictionary lookups, construction notes and related examples. Occurrence does not establish a particular dictionary sense.

Study this character

Structure & connections

0.10
61dictionary records using 购0forms using this shape0attributed sound links
⿰ Left / right

Shape description
贝 beside 勾 · the shape used in China
Source notation ^⿰贝勾$(G)
BabelStone · 2025-06-27. Encoded shape and region tags; graphical analysis does not establish historical function.

Decompose & trace ↗Browse all 61 word records ↗Explore sound families ↗Component search ↗
Retained descriptions & scope

^⿰贝勾$(G)

All alternatives are retained. Only the first description drives component search and graphical links. Counts describe this snapshot, not frequency. Evidence and method.