夜深 (yè shēn) — late at night; the dead of night | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

late at nightthe dead of night

Examples

夜深，。
yè shēn Le, jiē shàng yí gè rén yě méi yǒu.
It's late at night; there's no one on the street.
夜深，。
yè shēn De shí hou, tā hái zài gōng zuò.
In the dead of night, he is still working.
夜深，。
Suī rán yè shēn le, dàn hái zi men hái zài wán.
Although it's late at night, the children are still playing.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

夜 is night and 深 conveys deep or late; together they picture the night as deep.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

亦yì夜yè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

𥥍

𥥍𥥍深shēn

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

深 is built from 氵, the side form of 水 “water”, and 𥥍, which supplies the sound.

Appears in

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