货币
huòbì · HSK 7
currency
🪙💰 货 = goods/commodity + 币 = currency → the money used to trade goods
货 carries the sense of goods or commodities; 币 by itself means currency or coin. Put together, 货币 is the general term for money or currency — the medium that pays for goods.
货 — 化 (huà, phonetic) + 貝 (shell, money)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 貝 (cowrie shell) signals money or commerce, while 化 supplies the sound. Cowries served as ancient Chinese currency, so 货 originally meant valuables exchanged for shells, later broadening to 'goods' or 'merchandise'.