沙钱

沙錢
shāqián
noun

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 sand dollar (flat burrowing sea urchin)

Examples

Wǒmen zài tuìcháo hòu de shātān shàng jiǎn dàole jǐ zhī shāqián.
We picked up several sand dollars on the beach after the tide went out.
Shāqián shíjì shang shì yī zhǒng biǎnpíng de hǎidǎn.
Sand dollars are actually a type of flat sea urchin.

Tips

memory
Calque of English 'sand dollar' — the dried white skeleton is round and flat like an old silver coin, with a five-petal pattern on top. (In Classical Chinese 沙钱 can also mean a poor-quality copper coin — context disambiguates.)

Stroke Order

shā
qián