hán
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 the time just before dawn; daybreak about to come

Examples

Hán shí tiānkōng yǐ wēiwēi fāliàng.
Before daybreak the sky was already faintly bright.
Hěnduō rén yòng hán zì qǔmíng, jìtuō guāngmíng de qīwàng.
Many people use this character in given names, hoping for a bright future.

Tips

culture
Rare in ordinary text but popular in personal names, because it combines the sun with a 'morning is coming' meaning — parents read it as 'dawn, light, hope'. You will see it far more often on a name card than in a sentence.

Components

radical
sun; day
The sun radical on the left fixes the meaning in the world of light and time of day — here the sun not yet risen, the sky about to brighten.
phonetic
hán
to hold in the mouth; to contain
Gives the sound: standalone reads hán, exactly matching. There is a faint poetic fit too — the night still 'holding in' the sun that is about to emerge.

Stroke Order

hán