Where 黑 comes from
A man's face blacked by soot from a fire 灬
How to write 黑 (hēi, “black”)
黑 (hēi), an HSK 2 character, means “black”, “dark” and “sinister”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. On its own it is an HSK 5 word; it also forms 黑色 (“black”), 黑板 (“blackboard”) and 黑暗 (“dark”). Japanese reads it koku, “black”.
- Pinyin
- hēi
- Strokes
- 12
- HSK
- 2
- Radical
- 黑 (“black”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕top leftrightwards → downwards
- Dot ㇔top lefta dot
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and right → down and left
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Vertical ㇑topdown and right → downwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Dot ㇔bottom leftdownwards
- Dot ㇔bottom leftdown and right
- Dot ㇔bottomdown and right
- Dot ㇔bottom rightdown and right
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 12 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| hēi first tone | black; dark; sinister; secret; shady | — | 黑色 黑板 黑暗 黑客 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 2
- 2021 standard
- level 2
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 2 word
- Words with it
- 279 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 黑
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 黑 | hēi | black; dark HSK 5 |
| 黑色 | hēisè | black HSK 2 |
| 黑板 | hēibǎn | blackboard HSK 3 |
| 黑暗 | hēi’àn | dark; darkly HSK 6 |
| 黑客 | hēikè | (computing) (loanword) hacker HSK 7-9 |
| 黑马 黑馬 | hēimǎ | dark horse; fig. unexpected winner HSK 7-9 |
| 黑名单 黑名單 | hēimíngdān | blacklist HSK 7-9 |
| 漆黑 | qīhēi | pitch-black HSK 7-9 |
| 颠倒黑白 顛倒黑白 | diāndǎo-hēibái | lit. to invert black and white (idiom); to distort the truth… HSK 7-9 |
| 天黑 | tiānhēi | to get dark; dusk |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 2, in list order: