noun
seashell; shell
Refers to the hard outer shell of a mollusk, typically found on beaches or used in crafts.
海岸で美しい貝殻を拾った。
I picked up a beautiful seashell on the beach.
貝殻でアクセサリーを作る。
I make accessories out of shells.
Standard kanji spelling; high priority.
Mixed kana-kanji spelling, sometimes used for readability.
Contains outdated kanji 殼; not recommended for modern use.
Compound of 貝 (kai, 'shellfish') and 殻 (kara, 'shell, husk'), with rendaku voicing of kara to gara.