(): sun, day

() is a Chinese character meaning “sun, day.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #101 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, the sun. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour), (míng, bright, tomorrow).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sun, day

Etymology & Origin

pictographicThe sun

Decomposition: ⿴口一 (layout: full-surround)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounshēng rìbirthday2
nounrì ziday4
nounrì jìdiary4
nounjié rìholiday3
nounrì qīdate4
nounjīn rìtoday5
nounjì niàn rìday of commemoration5
rì chángday-to-day4
nounrì lìcalendar5
nounjià rìa holiday4
nounrì yèday and night6
nounxīng qī rìSunday1
adverbrì yìday by day6
nounrì hòusometime6
noungōng zuò rìworkday3
nounrì qiánthe other day6
nounrì yòng pǐnarticles for daily use5
nounjié jià rìpublic holiday4
nounjìn rì(in) the past few days5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rì běnJapan
mò rìlast day
rì chéngschedule
měi rìdaily
rì bàodaily newspaper
rì chūsunrise
míng rìtomorrow
rì guāngsunlight
rì jūnJapanese army
rì jiànto progress (or increase, change etc) day by day
dù rìto pass one's days
jì rìanniversary of a death
luò rìsetting sun
jiù rìformer times
píng rìordinary day
100
Total compounds
41
As first character
59
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 41 as the first character, 59 as the last, and 0 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

yuè
0.96432,211,011 co-occurrences
běn
0.5753,134,500 co-occurrences
0.5151,985,430 co-occurrences
pín
0.47193 co-occurrences
0.460293,856 co-occurrences
chén
0.434128,640 co-occurrences
líng
0.431128,898 co-occurrences
0.41246,842 co-occurrences
shòu
0.411261,930 co-occurrences
0.398506,412 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (44)

ànwútiānrìHSK 5+

gross lack of justice

phrase
BātūnlǔrìHSK 7+

Baton Rouge (a city, the state capital of Louisiana, United States)

báirìzuòmèngHSK 4+

to spin daydreams; to indulge in wishful thinking; to build castles in the air

phrase
bǎoshízhōngrìHSK 4+

to spend the whole day eating (i.e. not doing any work)

phrase
bùkě-zhōngrìHSK 3+

in a desperate situation; very frightened; very anxious

phrase
zhāo rì xīn wénHSK 5+

Asahi Shimbun (Japanese newspaper)

phrase
Dàrì RúláiHSK 3+

Vairocana

dùrìrúniánHSK 4+

days wear on like years

phrase
fēnghérìlìHSK 4+

the bright sunshine and gentle breezes; warm and sunny weather

phrase
fēnghérìnuǎnHSK 4+

to have warm sunshine and gentle breezes

phrase
jīn shí jīn rìHSK 1+

nowadays

adverb
Kàngrì ZhànzhēngHSK 6+

Second Sino-Japanese War; War of Resistance against Japan; the Anti-Japanese War

Showing 12 of 44 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

本是一个岛国,位于亚洲东部,经济非常发达。

Rìběn shì yí gè dǎoguó, wèiyú Yàzhōu dōngbù, jīngjì fēicháng fādá.

Japan is an island country located in eastern Asia with a very developed economy.

百度新闻Feb 2026

超标近2000倍 本石川县一处地下水检出高浓度有..

chāo biāo jìn bèi rì běn shí chuān xiàn yī chǔ dì xià shuǐ jiǎn chū gāo nóng dù yǒu . .

Nearly 2,000 times the limit, a groundwater in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, was found to have high concentrations of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

“文旅+”业态提质升级,山东新春假文旅消费场景更..

wén lǚ yè tài tí zhì shēng jí , shān dōng xīn chūn jiǎ rì wén lǚ xiāo fèi chǎng jǐng gēng . .

"Cultural Tourism Plus" Business Models Upgrade Quality, Enhancing Shandong's Spring Festival Holiday Cultural Tourism Experiences...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节假期首北京市属公园接待游客20.95万人次,....

chūn jié jiǎ qī shǒu rì běi jīng shì shǔ gōng yuán jiē dāi yóu kè . mò rén cì , . . . .

On the first day of the Spring Festival holiday, Beijing's municipal parks welcomed 209,500 visitors....

百度新闻Feb 2026

注意!静安“马上有礼”第五轮即将开抢,春焕新消费..

zhù yì ! jìng ān mǎ shǎng yǒu lǐ dì wǔ lún jí jiāng kāi qiāng , chūn rì huàn xīn xiāo fèi . .

Attention! Jing'an's "Instant Rewards" Fifth Round is About to Launch—Spring Refresh Consumption...

Tatoeba

这儿有人说语吗?

Zhèr yǒu rén shuō Rìyǔ ma?

Does anyone here speak Japanese?

Tatoeba

你是中国人还是本人?

Nǐ shì Zhōngguórén háishi Rìběnrén?

Are you Chinese or Japanese?

Tatoeba

你为什么来了本?

Nǐ wèishénme lái le Rìběn?

Why did you come to Japan?

Tatoeba

你记得了你父亲的生吗?

Nǐ jìde le nǐ fùqin de shēngrì ma?

Did you remember your father's birthday?

Tatoeba

你在本住多久了?

Nǐ zài Rìběn zhù duōjiǔ le?

How long have you lived in Japan?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the sun radical

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 日 (rì) mean in Chinese?
日 (rì) primarily means "sun, day." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #101 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 日 and 宵?
日 (rì) and 宵 (xiāo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 日 (day) vs 宵 (night).
How many strokes does 日 have?
日 is written with 4 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 日?
The radical associated with 日 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 日?
日 is composed of: 口 (structural), 一 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿴口一 with a full-surround layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 日?
Common words with 日 include: 生日 (shēng rì, "birthday"); 日子 (rì zi, "day"); 日本 (rì běn, "Japan"); 日记 (rì jì, "diary"); 节日 (jié rì, "holiday"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 日 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 日 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.