贵 (guì): expensive

Meanings

1 expensive
2 precious
3 honorable

Characters

贵

guì

expensive; precious; noble

Examples

这个太贵了。

Zhège tài guì le.

This is too expensive.

您贵姓？

Nín guìxìng?

What is your honorable surname?

北京的房子很贵。

Běijīng de fángzi hěn guì.

Houses in Beijing are very expensive.

Tips

culture

您贵姓 is the most polite way to ask someone's surname. 贵 here means 'honorable,' not 'expensive.' This is a very common formal greeting.

usage

The opposite of 贵 (expensive) is 便宜 (cheap). Bargaining tip: 太贵了！便宜一点吧！ (Too expensive! Make it cheaper!)

Components

radical

贝 bèi

cowrie shell; money

Bottom indexing radical 贝 — pictograph of a cowrie shell, the ancient currency. Same radical anchors 财 wealth, 货 goods, 费 expense, 购 to buy. Carries the core meaning: things filed under 贝 are usually about money or value. Hands cradling a cowrie = treating something as precious — hence 'expensive, honourable, your honoured.'

semantic

中 zhōng

centre; middle (graphic residue)

Top component, graphically a 中-shape but historically the residue of 臾 (cradling hands holding something up). In the modern simplified glyph it has converged with 中. Pictures hands cradling the precious cowrie below — the gesture of holding something dear. Pure semantic; no sound contribution.

ideograph

一 yī

one; horizontal divider

Middle horizontal stroke — a divider separating the cradling hands above from the cowrie below. Visually frames 贝 as the object being held up. A simple positional marker, not a sound element. Same divider role appears in many stacked compounds where a horizontal line separates two semantic layers.