HSK 5 · Adjectives

暗 àn “dark” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 暗 means

  1. dark
  2. dim
  3. secret
  4. to turn dark
  5. hidden

How to say 暗

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale暗àn4th tone, falling

暗 in a sentence

  1. 天空变得越来越暗了。

    Tiānkōng biàn de yuè lái yuè àn le.

    The sky grew darker and darker.

    Sentence #1456457 from Tatoeba

  2. 你不应该在这么暗的房间里看书。

    Nǐ bù yīnggāi zài zhème àn de fángjiān lǐ kànshū.

    You shouldn’t read in such a dark room.

    Sentence #604121 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 太暗了，看不清楚。

    Tài àn le, kàn bu qīngchu.

    It’s too dark to see clearly.

    Sentence #349768 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 暗 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 暗 (àn) with each of its parts in a different colour
暗àndark
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part
  • 音sound · yīnSound part

日 hints at the meaning (sun); 音 (yīn) hints at the sound. Compare it with àn.

How to write 暗

暗 13 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

暗 (àn) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 暗 (àn). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 暗

Words with 暗

暗示ànshì · to hint

More words: Adjectives

仔细zǐxì · careful美měi · beautiful强qiáng · strong整zhěng · whole薄báo · thin宝贵bǎoguì · valuable悲观bēiguān · pessimistic必要bìyào · necessary

FAQs

暗 (àn) means “dark” or “dim”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it àn: àn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 暗 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type an with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 暗 from the suggestions. Typing an into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
暗 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.