Word
Kana: はんばい Romaji: hambai Level: N3

販売

Meaning in English

sale, selling, marketing

Stroke order

Animated kanji stroke order

Sentence

Related sentences

Related sentences

There are no published items in this section yet.

Dictionary

Word context

What it means

販売 means the sale or selling of goods and services in commerce, referring to the activity of making products available for purchase in a business context. It is used as a noun and can be combined with suru to form the verb 販売する meaning to sell.

Main meanings

  • The act of selling goods or services in commerce
  • The sales function in a business, including sales departments and processes
  • Distribution of products to customers in a retail or wholesale context
  • Commonly appears in compound terms related to commerce and marketing

How to use it

Used as a noun to denote the act or system of selling; in formal contexts it appears in business documents, product catalogs, and marketing discussions; the verb form is 販売する and is used in everyday speech as well as in corporate language.

Variants and close terms

  • 売る (uru) – to sell; romaji: uru
  • 売却 (baikyaku) – sale or disposal of an asset; romaji: baikyaku
  • 購入 (kounyuu) – purchase; romaji: kounyuu
  • 販売店 (hanbaiten) – retailer; romaji: hanbaiten
  • 販売促進 (hanbai sokushin) – sales promotion; romaji: hanbai sokushin

Composition

  • 販: money-related radical 貝 signaling commerce; the right-side element 反 suggests exchange
  • 売: to sell; the kanji conveys the act of selling

Etymology

etimologia han + bai form hanbai; 販 and 売 are Sino-Japanese characters contributing commerce and selling senses.

Origin

Origins trace to early modern Japan where organized markets and merchant systems expanded; by the Meiji era the term became standard in governance and business vocabulary, and it spread across industries.

Word class

Noun (名詞)

Word

Related words by kanji and components

Kanji

Related kanji