黑匣子

hēixiázi
noun #30,418

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 black box (flight recorder)
  2. 2 (figuratively) impenetrable system whose internals are unknown

Examples

Sōujiù rényuán zhǎo dào le fēijī de hēixiázi.
Rescue workers found the airplane's black box.
Shēndù xuéxí móxíng cháng bèi chēng wéi hēixiázi.
Deep learning models are often called black boxes.

Tips

culture
Calque of English "black box." Two senses migrated together: (1) the flight data recorder + cockpit voice recorder on aircraft (which is actually painted bright orange, not black, for visibility after a crash), and (2) any system whose internal workings are opaque, used widely in AI and engineering discussion.
memory
(black) + (xiázi, small box/case). itself is everyday Chinese for a small lidded container — think of an old jewelry box. The suffix gives the word a colloquial feel, similar to English "the box."

Stroke Order

hēi
xiá