贵 (guì) · expensive, precious, honorable

Meanings

1 expensive
2 precious
3 honorable

Characters

贵

guì

expensive; precious; noble

Examples

HSK 1

这个太贵了。

Zhège tài guì le.

This is too expensive.

HSK 2

您贵姓？

Nín guìxìng?

What is your honorable surname?

HSK 6

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.