yīn / yìn
noun #26,697

Meanings

  1. 1 shade (of a tree)

Examples

Zhōngwǔ tāmen zài dàshù de shùyīn lǐ xiūxi.
They rested in the shade of a big tree at noon.
Línyīndào liǎngpáng dōu shì gāodà de shùmù.
Both sides of the boulevard are shaded by tall trees.

Tips

usage
Read yīn for the plain 'tree shade' sense, almost always bound: 树荫 (tree shade), 林荫道 (tree-lined avenue), 绿树成荫. A separate reading yìn carries the 'shelter, protection' senses (荫蔽, 恩荫).

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant
Grass radical at the top marks as vegetation-related: tree shade is cast by leafy plants overhead. Even though tree shade conceptually involves , the leafy-canopy aspect made the indexing radical.
phonetic
yīn
shade; cloudy; the yin principle
supplies both sound and meaning: it itself means shaded, the sunless north side of a hill. Combined with the grass radical, is leafy shade. The same phonetic also yields (mat).

Stroke Order

yīn