腋 (yè): armpit

Meanings

今天太热了，腋下全是汗。

Jīntiān tài rè le, yèxià quán shì hàn.

It is so hot today my armpits are soaked with sweat.

医生让我把体温计夹在腋下。

Yīshēng ràng wǒ bǎ tǐwēnjì jiā zài yè xià.

The doctor told me to put the thermometer in my armpit.

usage

Everyday speech says 腋下 (under the arm) or 胳肢窝 (a colloquial word for armpit). The four-character idiom 集腋成裘 means many small bits add up to a lot.

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh; body

The flesh radical, the body-part form of 肉 (it looks like 月 but is not the moon). It marks 腋 as a part of the body, here the hollow under the arm.

phonetic

夜 yè

night

Pure sound: standalone 夜 is yè and 腋 keeps it exactly. The night meaning does not enter the word; it only fixes the pronunciation.

腋 yè