曦

xī

noun

Meanings

HSK 7-9

晨曦一透进来，他就起床了。

Chén xī yí tòu jìnlái, tā jiù qǐchuáng le.

As soon as the dawn light came through, he got up.

HSK 7-9

朝曦照在雪山上，染成了金色。

Zhāo xī zhào zài xuěshān shàng, rǎn chéng le jīnsè.

The morning sun shone on the snowy peaks, dyeing them gold.

曦 is a literary word for early-morning sunlight. It is rare in speech but common in poetry and given names, often paired as 晨曦 (the light of dawn).

radical

日 rì

sun; day

The sun radical on the left, picturing the sun. It tells you 曦 is about sunlight, specifically the soft glow of the rising morning sun.

phonetic

羲 xī

(used in the name Xihe, charioteer of the sun)

Gives the sound xī. It also evokes Xihe, the mythical driver of the sun's chariot, deepening the dawn-light flavor of the character.

曦 xī