晦 (huì): (bound form) last day of a lunar month, (bound form) dark, gloomy

晦 (huì) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) last day of a lunar month.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (semantic) and 每 (phonetic). It ranks #3386 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 晦 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 时 (shí, time, hour), 明 (míng, bright, tomorrow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) last day of a lunar month
  2. (bound form) dark
  3. gloomy

Etymology & Origin

晦

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿰日每 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
晦气adjectivehuì qìbad luck
隐晦adjectiveyǐn huìvague
晦涩adjectivehuì sèdifficult to understand
晦暗adjectivehuì àndark and gloomy
韬光养晦phrasetāo guāng yǎng huìto conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom)
风雨如晦phrasefēng yǔ rú huìlit. wind and rain darken the sky (idiom)
遵时养晦zūn shí yǎng huìto bide one's time, waiting for an opportunity to stage a comeback in public life (idiom)
显晦xiǎn huìlight and shade
风雨晦冥fēng yǔ huì míngconditions of extreme adversity (idiom)
阴晦adjectiveyīn huìovercast
艰深晦涩jiān shēn huì sèabstruse and unfathomable (idiom)
悖晦adjectivebèi huì(coll.) muddleheaded
12
Total compounds
25
As first character
58
As last character
17
As middle character

晦 appears in 12 compound words: 25 as the first character, 58 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

风雨晦冥fēng yǔ huì míng

conditions of extreme adversity (idiom)

phrase
风雨如晦fēngyǔrúhuì

bad times with no end in sight

phrase
韬光养晦tāoguāngyǎnghuì

to hide one's talents, and bide one's time for the right opportunity

phrase
遵时养晦zūn shí yǎng huì

to bide one's time, waiting for an opportunity to stage a comeback in public life (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

晦落西山,晚霞映红了半边天。

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

The sun sets behind the western hills, and the evening glow paints half the sky red.

爱范儿Aug 2026

它仅仅翻译晦涩的对白,迷路时调出攻略,或是陷入僵局时给出一点线索。

tā jǐn jǐn fān yì huì sè de duì bái , mí lù shí diào chū gōng lüè , huò shì xiàn rù jiāng jú shí gěi chū yī diǎn xiàn suǒ .

It simply translates obscure dialogue, pulls up a walkthrough when you get lost, or offers a hint when you're stuck.

爱范儿Jul 2026

遇到晦涩的长难句,传统的做法是手动划选、右键复制、切出翻译软件再粘贴,步骤繁杂。

yù dào huì sè de cháng nán jù , chuán tǒng de zuò fǎ shì shǒu dòng huá xuǎn , yòu jiàn fù zhì , qiē chū fān yì ruǎn jiàn zài nián tiē , bù zhòu fán zá .

When encountering long, complex sentences that are difficult to understand, the traditional approach involves manually highlighting the text, right-clicking to copy it, opening a translation tool, and then pasting it—a cumbersome process.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

原本晦涩冷僻的甲骨文,在弹幕和留言中获得了大量关注。

yuán běn huì sè lěng pì de jiǎ gǔ wén , zài dàn mù hé liú yán zhōng huò dé le dà liàng guān zhù .

Oracle bone script, which was once obscure and rarely studied, has garnered a great deal of attention through comments and messages.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

相较而言,考古报告往往晦涩难懂。

xiāng jiào ér yán , kǎo gǔ bào gào wǎng wǎng huì sè nán dǒng .

In contrast, archaeological reports are often difficult to understand.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

趣味十足的玩法,让原本晦涩的古文明知识变得生动易懂,她收获了满满的知识与喜悦。

qù wèi shí zú de wán fǎ , ràng yuán běn huì sè de gǔ wén míng zhī shí biàn dé shēng dòng yì dǒng , tā shōu huò le mǎn mǎn de zhī shí yǔ xǐ yuè .

The fun and engaging activities made the otherwise obscure knowledge of ancient civilizations come alive and easy to understand, and she gained a wealth of knowledge and joy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 日 (sun) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 晦 (huì) mean in Chinese?
晦 (huì) primarily means "(bound form) last day of a lunar month." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3386 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 晦 and 灯?
晦 (huì) and 灯 (dēng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 晦 (dark) vs 灯 (light).
How many strokes does 晦 have?
晦 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 晦?
The radical associated with 晦 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 晦?
晦 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 每 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰日每 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 晦?
Common words with 晦 include: 晦气 (huì qì, "bad luck"); 隐晦 (yǐn huì, "vague"); 晦涩 (huì sè, "difficult to understand"); 晦暗 (huì àn, "dark and gloomy"); 韬光养晦 (tāo guāng yǎng huì, "to conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom)"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
Is 晦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 晦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 晦 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.