钙

鈣
gài
noun HSK 7-9 #12,469

Meanings

  1. 1 calcium

Examples

HSK 5
Niúnǎi hányǒu fēngfù de gài.
Milk is rich in calcium.
HSK 6
Lǎoniánrén xūyào duō bǔ gài.
Elderly people need to supplement more calcium.

Tips

memory
The 钅 radical on the left indicates it's a metal/element. 盖 on the right gives the pronunciation. Common collocations: 补钙 (supplement calcium), 缺钙 (calcium deficiency).

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal; gold (radical form)
Left metal radical (the side-form of 金) - the indexing radical, marking 钙 as one of the modern element characters coined for the chemistry lexicon. Same radical builds 铁 iron, 铜 copper, 锌 zinc, 钠 sodium. Whenever a Chinese term names a metallic element, expect 钅 anchoring the left.
phonetic
丐 gài
beggar
Right 丐 supplies the sound gài - an exact match with no drift, chosen precisely to match the Latin calcium. The beggar sense plays no part in the meaning; 钅 + 丐 is a purely modern, sound-driven coinage of the late Qing / early Republican chemistry vocabulary.

Stroke Order

钙 gài