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灰

huī
noun HSK 7-9 #3,279

Meanings

  1. 1 ash; dust
  2. 2 gray (color)
  3. 3 discouraged; disheartened

Examples

她穿了一件灰色的外套。
Tā chuān le yī jiàn huīsè de wàitào.
She wore a gray coat.
桌子上有一层灰。
Zhuōzi shàng yǒu yī céng huī.
There is a layer of dust on the table.

Tips

usage
灰色 (huīsè) = gray, 灰心 (huīxīn) = discouraged, 灰尘 (huīchén) = dust.

Components

radical
火 huǒ
fire
Bottom radical 火 (fire) anchors the meaning: 灰 is what fire leaves behind once it has burned out — ash, dust, the colour grey. The fire pictograph shows flames flickering up; combined with the hand above, the compound reads as 'a hand sifting through ashes after the fire'. Same 火 radical in 烟 (smoke), 烤 (roast), 灯 (lamp).
semantic
又 yòu
right hand; again
Top-left two-stroke shape is a stylised hand-form (graphically related to 又 'right hand' in oracle bones, here drawn as a 'cap' over the fire). Pictures a hand reaching down to scoop up cold remnants from a fire-pit. The original 灰 graph showed exactly that — a hand 又 raking out the ashes after a fire 火 had burned out.

Stroke Order

灰 huī