Chinese Character Wiki
陰

yīn

dark

Phonosemantic compound. 今 and 云 represent the sound, while 阝 and 云 represent the meaning.

Components
阝 meaning component

阝  Meaning component

fù

  

hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜. Depicts hills blocking sunlight.

今 sound component

今  Sound component

jīn

  

now

云 sound,meaning component

云  Sound Meaning component

yún

  

clouds

Depicts clouds darkening the sky.

Evolution

陰 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
陰 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
陰 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
陰 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
陰 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

阴 (陰) 

yīn

'female' principle; dark; secret; overcast (weather); cloudy; shady; Yin (the negative principle of Yin and Yang); negative (electric.); feminine; moon; implicit; hidden; genitalia

阴 (陰) 

Yīn

surname Yin

Most common words with 陰
Freq.
Word
Meaning

阴

cloudy

阴谋

plot

阴影

(lit. and fig.) shadow

阴道

vagina

阴性

negative

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

蔭

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

蔭

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*q(r)um

'im

yīn

dark


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 28.5920% of movies

1214th most common character in movies

987th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Simplified

阴

Unicode

U+9670

Shuowen

“陰，闇也。水之南，山之北也。从，侌聲。”


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