凌晨 (líng chén) — very early in the morning, the wee hours (typic… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

凌晨 means the deepest part of the night, roughly midnight to dawn — later/earlier than 清晨 and 早晨. Pairs with clock times like 凌晨两点.

noun

very early in the morningthe wee hours (typically from around midnight to dawn)

Examples

凌晨，。
líng chén De jiē dào hěn ān jìng, jī hū méi yǒu xíng rén.
The streets are very quiet in the early morning, with almost no pedestrians.
凌晨。
Tā měi tiān líng chén sì diǎn bàn jiù qǐ lái pǎo bù.
He gets up for a run at 4:30 every morning.
凌晨。
Wǒ men yì zhí gōng zuò dào líng chén liǎng diǎn cái xiū xi.
We worked until two in the morning before resting.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

凌língapproach

晨chénmorning

凌 gives approaching, and 晨 gives morning, together pointing to the hours just before dawn.

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.

冫夌凌

Meaning part形符xíngfú

冫Written in full as仌bīngice

Sound part声符shēngfú

夌

夌líng凌líng

Same sound today

In 凌, the left part 冫 relates to ice, while the right part 夌 gives the pronunciation.

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

日辰晨

Meaning part形符xíngfú

日日rìsun

Sound part声符shēngfú

辰

辰chén晨chén

Same sound today

The shape 晨 adds 日 (sun) to 辰, which gives the sound; it was originally written as 辰 alone.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Time of Day 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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