míng
adjective #66,044

Meanings

  1. 1 (literary) dusk; growing dark
  2. 2 (literary) gloomy; dim

Examples

Yún guī ér yán xué míng.
As the clouds return, the mountain caves grow dark.

Tips

history
is rarely used alone today. It meant dusk falling or a dim sky; it survives in literary words such as (twilight) and is known from Ouyang Xiu's prose.
register
Literary; everyday Chinese uses 昏暗 for dim and 暮色 for dusk.

Components

radical
sun; daylight
(sun) is the meaning radical, here marking the fading of daylight into dusk.
phonetic
míng
dark; obscure
supplies both the sound míng and a reinforcing sense of darkness and gloom.

Stroke Order

míng