Meaning & readings
evening
On’yomi セキ
Kun’yomi ゆう
Nanori ゆ
Origin
This character is a simplified picture of the crescent moon, which appears in the evening sky. The two strokes on the left represent the curved shape of a young moon, while the vertical stroke suggests the moon suspended in the sky. Because the moon rises as day turns to night, this image naturally came to mean "evening" in Japanese and Chinese.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (夕).
Common words
- 朝夕 あさゆう morning and evening
- 夕刊 ゆうかん evening edition (of a daily newspaper); evening paper
- 夕刻 ゆうこく evening; evening hour
- 夕食 ゆうしょく evening meal; dinner
- 夕日 ゆうひ evening sun; setting sun
- 夕方 ゆうがた early evening (usu. from 3pm to 6pm); dusk
- 夕霧 ゆうぎり evening mist
- 夕立 ゆうだち (sudden, heavy) shower (on a summer afternoon or evening); evening shower
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 36
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #924 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05915