Chinese symbol for “buy”
买
mǎi
Traditional: 買
to buy; to purchase
The closest CC-CEDICT match for buy is 买 (mǎi), defined as: to buy; to purchase.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “buy”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 购 (購) | gòu | to buy; to purchase |
| 代购 (代購) | dài gòu | to buy (on behalf of sb) |
| 买入 (買入) | mǎi rù | to buy (finance) |
| 购买 (購買) | gòu mǎi | to purchase; to buy |
| 沽 | gū | to buy; to sell |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 买.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 购买 (購買) | gòu mǎi | to purchase; to buy |
| 买卖 (買賣) | mǎi mài | to buy and sell |
| 买下 (買下) | mǎi xià | to purchase (sth expensive, e.g. a house); to acquire (a company, a copyright etc) |
| 收买 (收買) | shōu mǎi | to purchase; to buy; to bribe; to buy off |
| 买单 (買單) | mǎi dān | to pay the bill; to pick up the tab |
See also: Japanese symbol for “buy”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.