黑 (hēi): black

Meanings

1 black
2 dark

Characters

黑

hēi

black; dark

Examples

天黑了，我们回家吧。

Tiān hēi le, wǒmen huíjiā ba.

It's getting dark, let's go home.

他穿了一件黑色的衣服。

Tā chuān le yí jiàn hēisè de yīfu.

He wore black clothes.

她的头发是黑色的。

Tā de tóufa shì hēisè de.

Her hair is black.

Tips

usage

天黑了 means 'it's getting dark' — a very common expression. 黑 can describe both color (black) and lighting (dark).

Components

ideograph

黑 hēi

black; dark

Single fused unit: the upper portion no longer maps to any independent CJK form, capping the four bottom 灬 dots that suggest fire below. Kangxi radical #203 heading 默, 黛, 黯, 黔. Historically a chimney or smoke-vent stained with soot above licking flames, fused by small-seal stage.

Radical

Black Kangxi #203

An ideogram of a chimney 囱 over flames 灬 — the soot-blackening of smoke. Indexes characters about darkness, ink, and stains: 默 (silent / dark), 黛 (dark eyebrow paint), 黝 (dark green-black), 黯 (gloomy), 黔 (Guizhou — once a dark frontier), 黛 (kohl), 點 (dot, simplified 点).