hēi

black

Pictograph of a person whose face has been tattooed. In ancient China criminals were punished by having their faces permanently marked. Later writers reanalyzed the character as a chimney being blackened by fire, so the bottom component was written to look like (flame).

Evolution

黑 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
黑 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
黑 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

hēi

black; dark; evil, sinister; sinister; secret; shady; illegal; to hide (sth) away; to vilify; (loanword) to hack (computing)

 

Hēi

abbr. for Heilongjiang province 黑龍江|黑龙江[Hēi​lóng​jiāng]

Most common words with 黑
Freq.
Word
Meaning

black

黑色

black

黑人

black person

黑暗

dark

黑帮

criminal gang

Component uses

Meaning component in 15 characters (3 verified)

Sound component in 4 characters (2 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

𦰩

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*m̥ˤək (dialect *m̥ˤ- > xˤ-)

xok

hēi

black


Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 62.2938% of movies

508th most common character in movies

519th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

12

Unicode

U+9ED1

Shuowen

“黑,火所熏之色也。从炎上出囦。囦古字。”


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