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销

銷
xiāo
verb HSK 7-9 #17,471

Meanings

  1. 1 to melt
  2. 2 to cancel
  3. 3 to sell

Examples

HSK 5
他在一家公司做销售。
Tā zài yì jiā gōngsī zuò xiāoshòu.
He works in sales at a company.
HSK 6
这本书很畅销。
Zhè běn shū hěn chàngxiāo.
This book sells very well.
HSK 7-9
我想注销这个账号。
Wǒ xiǎng zhùxiāo zhège zhànghào.
I want to cancel this account.

Tips

usage
钅(metal) + 肖 - melting metal down, extended to 'cancel' and 'sell'

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal (radical form of 金)
Left metal radical - the indexing radical in its 5-stroke side form. Original meaning of 销 was 'to melt metal,' which is why the metal radical anchors it. From smelting down came the figurative senses: to consume, dissolve, cancel out, and finally 'to sell off' (in the sense of clearing inventory). Modern compounds: 销售 (sales), 注销 (cancel), 销毁 (destroy).
phonetic
肖 xiāo
to resemble; likeness
Right side 肖 supplies the sound directly (xiāo → xiāo, exact match for one reading). Same phonetic anchors a family: 消 (vanish), 削 (whittle), 宵 (night), 硝 (saltpetre). The 'resemble' meaning is unused here; the link is purely the sound. Faintly fitting, though, since smelting reduces metal to something only resembling its original form.

Stroke Order

销 xiāo