Meaning of 乌云
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- black cloud
How to use 乌云
乌云 is used for literal dark clouds in weather talk, and also figuratively for a gloomy or threatening situation. A common measure word is 片 (piàn) or 朵 (duǒ). Example: 天上有一片乌云，快下雨了。(Tiān shang yǒu yí piàn wūyún, kuài xià yǔ le.) There is a dark cloud in the sky. It is about to rain.
乌 (wū) means black, as in 乌鸦 (wūyā), the black crow. Put it before 云 (yún), cloud, and you get a black cloud, the dark kind that brings rain.
Common mistake: Learners often write 鸟 (niǎo, bird) instead of 乌 (wū). 乌 has no dot inside the top part, while 鸟 does. Also keep 乌 in the first tone, not the third.
乌云 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
乌 wū · crow · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
云 yún · cloud · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 乌云.
| 多云 | duōyún | (meteorology) cloudy |
| 风云 | fēngyún | weather; unstable situation |
| 乌鸦 | wūyā | crow; raven |
| 乌龟 | wūguī | tortoise; cuckold |
| 星云 | xīngyún | nebula |
| 云层 | yúncéng | the clouds; cloud layer |
| 乌贼 | wūzéi | cuttlefish |
| 云雀 | yúnquè | (bird species of China) Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) |
| 云彩 | yúncai | (coll.) cloud |
| 云端 | yúnduān | high in the clouds; (computing) the cloud |
| 乌拉 | wùla | leather shoe stuffed with Carex meyeriana 烏拉草|乌拉草[wu4 la5 cao3], worn in northeastern Chin |
| 烟消云散 | yānxiāoyúnsàn | (idiom) to vanish like smoke in thin air; to disappear |
Questions about 乌云
What does 乌云 mean?
乌云 (wūyún) means "black cloud" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 乌云?
乌云 is made of 2 characters: 乌 (4 strokes), 云 (4 strokes). That is 8 strokes in total.
Is 乌云 an HSK word?
Yes. 乌云 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 乌云 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 乌云 is written 烏雲.
How do you say 'every cloud has a silver lining' with 乌云?
There is no fixed one-to-one idiom, but people often say 乌云总会散去 (wūyún zǒng huì sànqù), meaning the dark clouds will always clear. It expresses the same hope that bad times will pass.
What is the difference between 乌云 and 多云?
乌云 is a noun for dark, heavy clouds, often a sign of rain. 多云 (duōyún) describes the weather as cloudy, and you will hear it in weather forecasts, as in 今天多云 (jīntiān duōyún), it is cloudy today.