Meaning of 黑
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- black
- dark
- sinister
- secret
- shady
- illegal
- to hide (sth) away
- to vilify
- short name for Heilongjiang 黑龍江|黑龙江[Hei1 long2 jiang1]
How to use 黑
黑 (hēi) means black or dark, and it also describes things that are shady or illegal, like 黑车 (hēichē, an unlicensed taxi). A very common everyday use is talking about it getting dark: 天黑了。(Tiān hēi le.) It's getting dark.
Picture the bottom of 黑 (hēi) as four dots of fire 灬 burning under a smoky window above. Everything the smoke touches turns black.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 黑 with 墨 (mò, ink), which is 黑 with 土 underneath. Also remember that 黑 is first tone, hēi, so it should stay high and flat rather than falling.
黑 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.
黑 hēi · black · 12 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 黑.
| 黑色 | hēisè | black |
| 黑板 | hēibǎn | blackboard |
| 黑暗 | hēi'àn | dark; darkly |
| 黑夜 | hēiyè | night |
| 黑客 | hēikè | (computing) (loanword) hacker |
| 黑手 | hēishǒu | (fig.) malign agent who manipulates from behind the scenes; hidden hand |
| 黑白 | hēibái | black and white; right and wrong |
| 黑马 | hēimǎ | dark horse; fig. unexpected winner |
| 黑心 | hēixīn | ruthless and lacking in conscience; vicious mind full of hatred and jealousy |
| 黑体 | hēitǐ | sans-serif typeface (for Chinese characters); (physics) black body |
| 黑人 | hēirén | black person; an illegal |
| 黑鬼 | hēiguǐ | black devil (derogatory term for black or African person) |
Questions about 黑
What does 黑 mean?
黑 (hēi) means "black; dark" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 黑?
黑 is made of 1 character: 黑 (12 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 黑 an HSK word?
Yes. 黑 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 黑 and 黑色?
黑 can stand alone as an adjective, as in 天黑了 (tiān hēi le). 黑色 (hēisè) is the noun for the color black and is often used before nouns, as in 黑色的衣服 (hēisè de yīfu), black clothes.
Does 黑 have negative meanings?
Yes. Besides the color, 黑 can mean sinister, secret or illegal, as in 黑手 (hēishǒu), a hidden hand manipulating things. As a verb it can mean to vilify someone, and in modern computing slang 黑客 (hēikè) means hacker.