■ radical
guàn
to pierce
How it’s built
Simplified form of 貫. Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 毌 represents the sound. Originally written as 毌, a pictograph of a string being pierced through something. The 貝 component was added later, conveying a string of shells used as money.
Appears in
Characters that use 贯 as a component, most common first.