What ⻉ means
It labels the shell component in radical notation.
A radical is a visible component dictionaries use to group Chinese characters. ⻉ is notation; 贝 is the ordinary simplified character.
The older graph 貝 appears as a shell drawing in oracle-bone divination records, carved on bone or turtle shell; early examples show offerings. Bronze inscriptions use it for shell money and rewards, while Warring States records retain the shell sense. Later seal, clerical, and regular forms show gradual change. The component hints at money or trade in some characters, not all.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⻉ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
More like this
11
How to type or find ⻉
- Search it as
- bei · 贝 · 貝 · 贝部首 · 贝字旁 · 贝偏旁
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⻉\2EC9Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.