晨 (chén): morning, dawn, daybreak

晨 (chén) is a Chinese character meaning “morning.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (semantic) and 辰 (phonetic). It ranks #1380 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 晨 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 早 (zǎo, early, morning), 时 (shí, time, hour).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. morning
  2. dawn
  3. daybreak

Etymology & Origin

晨

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿱日辰 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Practice writing 晨 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 晨

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
早晨nounzǎo chénearly morning4
凌晨nounlíng chénvery early in the morning6
清晨nounqīng chénearly morning6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
今晨nounjīn chénthis morning
晨曦nounchén xīfirst rays of morning sun
晨报nounchén bàomorning newspaper
晨练verbchén liànmorning exercise
晨露nounchén lùmorning dew
晨星nounchén xīngmorning stars
一日之计在于晨proverbyī rì zhī jì zài yú chénmake your day's plan early in the morning (idiom)
华商晨报huá shāng chén bàoChina Business Morning Post (morning edition of China Business News 華商報|华商报)
晨间chén jiān(of the) morning
北京晨报běi jīng chén bàoBeijing Morning Post, newspaper published 1998-2018
晨昏定省chén hūn dìng xǐngmorning and evening visits to parents
昏定晨省hūn dìng chén xǐngseeing to bed in the evening and visiting in the morning (ancient filial duty)
晨跑verbchén pǎoto go for a morning run
晨歌nounchén gēmorning chorus (birdsong)
牝鸡司晨phrasepìn jī sī chénfemale chicken crows at daybreak (idiom)
26
Total compounds
50
As first character
31
As last character
19
As middle character

晨 appears in 26 compound words: 50 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 19 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 晨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

凌líng
0.76847,834 co-occurrences
柳liǔ
0.68040 co-occurrences
映yìng
0.60641 co-occurrences
岸àn
0.52440 co-occurrences
早zǎo
0.51712,232 co-occurrences
清qīng
0.48714,991 co-occurrences
树shù
0.48640 co-occurrences
倒dǎo
0.43840 co-occurrences
日rì
0.42842,880 co-occurrences
点diǎn
0.4255,028 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

晨昏定省chén hūn dìng xǐngHSK 7+

morning and evening visits to parents; cf 昏定晨省

phrase
晨钟暮鼓chénzhōngmùgǔHSK 7+

lonely life of monks and nuns; passage of time

phrase
昏定晨省hūn dìng chén xǐngHSK 7+

seeing to bed in the evening and visiting in the morning (ancient filial duty)

phrase
寥若晨星liáoruòchénxīngHSK 7+

very few

phrase
暮鼓晨钟mùgǔchénzhōngHSK 7+

alternative form of 晨鐘暮鼓 /晨钟暮鼓 (chénzhōngmùgǔ)

phrase
牝鸡司晨pìnjīsīchénHSK 4+

a woman usurps authority, women meddle in politics, the female wears the trousers.

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

晨落西山,晚霞映红了半边天。

chén luò xī shān , wǎn xiá yìng hóng le bàn biān tiān .

As the morning sun dips below the western hills, the evening glow paints half the sky crimson.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

...国〉春节商机!电话接不完 美甲师加班到凌晨三点

. . . guó chūn jié shāng jī ! diàn huà jiē bù wán měi jiǎ shī jiā bān dào líng chén sān diǎn

... Spring Festival business opportunities! The phone can't be answered, and the nail technician works overtime until three o'clock in the morning

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

桃园人妻晨间泼酸毁夫双眼 获缓刑理由曝光

táo yuán rén qī chén jiān pō suān huǐ fū shuāng yǎn huò huǎn xíng lǐ yóu pù guāng

Taoyuan wife splashed acid in the morning and destroyed her husband's eyes, and the reason for the suspended sentence was exposed

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

凌晨2:34 新北坪林区规模4.0地震 最大...

líng chén 2 : 3 4 xīn běi píng lín qū guī mó 4 . 0 dì zhèn zuì dà . . .

At 2:34 a.m., a magnitude 4.0 earthquake in Pinglin District, New Taipei City was the largest...

EttodayFeb 2026

快讯/马来西亚沙巴凌晨发生7.1强震

kuài xùn mǎ lái xī yà shā bā líng chén fā shēng 7 . 1 qiáng zhèn

News/A 7.1 earthquake struck Sabah, Malaysia in the early morning

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

“滶晨II”马年首周末沽2伙 套现近2700万...

滶 chén I I mǎ nián shǒu zhōu mò gū 2 huǒ tào xiàn jìn 2 7 0 0 wàn . . .

"Yichen II" sold 2 units on the first weekend of the Year of the Horse and cashed out nearly 27 million...

Tatoeba

我今晨看见一位天使。

Wǒ jīnchén kànjiàn yī wèi tiānshǐ.

This morning, I saw an angel.

Tatoeba

我不喜欢在清晨开的会议。

Wǒ bù xǐhuan zài qīngchén kāi de huìyì.

I don't like early morning meetings.

Tatoeba

我觉得在寒冷的早晨很难早起。

Wǒ juéde zài hánlěng de zǎochén hěn nán zǎoqǐ.

I find it hard to get up early on cold mornings.

Tatoeba

从清晨开始一直下雨。

Cóng qīngchén kāishǐ yīzhí xiàyǔ.

It's been raining since early morning.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 日 (sun) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chén

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 晨 (chén) mean in Chinese?
晨 (chén) primarily means "morning." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1380 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 晨 and 晚?
晨 (chén) and 晚 (wǎn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 晨 (morning) vs 晚 (evening).
How many strokes does 晨 have?
晨 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 晨?
The radical associated with 晨 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 晨?
晨 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 辰 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱日辰 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 晨?
Common words with 晨 include: 早晨 (zǎo chén, "early morning"); 凌晨 (líng chén, "very early in the morning"); 清晨 (qīng chén, "early morning"); 今晨 (jīn chén, "this morning"); 晨曦 (chén xī, "first rays of morning sun"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 晨 (chén)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chén: 沉 (to submerge), 陈 (Chen (c. 1045 – 479 BC), a Zhou dynasty state), 臣 (state official or subject in dynastic China), 尘 (dust), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 晨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 晨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 晨 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.