Meaning
(of weather) overcast; Yin; feminine; moon; cloudy; negative (electric.)
Chinese: 天气。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “yin” becomes a different word in each tone. 阴 is the 1st tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 阴天yīn tiāncloudy day; overcast sky
- 阴谋yīn móuto conspire; to plot; a conspiracy; a plot
- 阴影yīn yǐng(lit. and fig.) shadow
- 阴性yīn xìngnegative; feminine
- 阴暗yīn àndim; dark; overcast; darkness
Example Sentence
今天是阴天，可能会下雨。Jīn tiān shì yīn tiān, kě néng huì xià yǔ.Today is cloudy; it might rain.
今天Jīn tiāntoday是shìis阴天yīn tiāncloudy day，可能kě néngmaybe会huìcan下雨xià yǔto rain。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A mound or hill (阝) plus the moon (月): the shaded side of a hill. It means ‘shade / yin / overcast’. Simplified from 陰.
A way to remember it
The shady side of the hill — yin.
Easy to confuse with
- 阳‘Sun / yang’: the same hill (阝), but with 日 (sun) — the sunny side.