cái
noun #13,175

Meanings

  1. 1 material; stuff
  2. 2 talent; ability
  3. 3 timber

Examples

Wǒmen xūyào gèngduō de cáiliào.
We need more materials.
Tā shì yīgè réncái.
He is a talented person.

Tips

usage
is mainly used in compounds: 材料 (cáiliào, material), 人才 (réncái, talent/talented person), 木材 (mùcái, timber), 教材 (jiàocái, teaching material), 器材 (qìcái, equipment).

Components

radical
tree; wood
Wood radical on the left — pictograph of a tree with branches above and roots below. Indexes in the wood family with grove, board, table. Marks the character as something derived from trees: timber and, by extension, any raw material.
phonetic
cái
talent; just now
Right side supplies the sound cái directly, no drift. also adds a strong semantic flavour — innate ability or quality. The two senses of (timber and talent) fall out cleanly: useful wood and useful human ability are the same metaphor in classical Chinese.

Stroke Order

cái