noun #2,426

Meanings

  1. 1 guest; visitor
  2. 2 customer; traveler

Examples

Jiālǐ láikè rén le.
We have guests at home.
Qǐngwèn, jǐ wèi kèrén?
Excuse me, how many guests?
Gùkè shì shàngdì.
The customer is king. (lit. God)

Tips

usage
is used in: 客人 (guest), 顾客 (customer), 客厅 (living room), 客气 (polite/courteous), 乘客 (passenger), 旅客 (traveler). A roof () over each () — each person under your roof is a guest.

Components

radical
mián
roof; cover
Roof radical on top — the indexing component, putting in the dwelling family with (home), (room), (peace under a roof), (guard the house). The roof here shelters whoever has come to visit.
phonetic
each; every
Bottom gives the sound (gè → kè, mild drift) and a soft semantic touch — each individual person who arrives under the roof. Same phonetic family as (pattern), (road), (fall) where keeps a rough -è/-uò reading.

Stroke Order