黒

See also 黑, and 里

Translingual

Stroke order

shinjitai	黒
simplified	黑
traditional	黑

Etymology

Japanese shinjitai Simplified from 黑, replacing two dots with one stroke. Compare 毋 (from 母).

Graphically 里 + 灬 (“fire”), and bottom is cognate to 灬.

Han character

黒 (radical 203 黑+0, 11 strokes, cangjie input 田土火 (WGF), X田土火 (XWGF))

1. black
2. dark
3. evil

Usage notes

In some Japanese shinjitai simplifications, 黒 is split into 里 and 灬 (on the bottom of the character), such as 黙 (from 默), and the 里 component may disappear, as in 点 (from 點).

See also

• 里

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 1518, character 36
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 48040
• Dae Jaweon: page 2052, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: not present, would follow volume 7, page 4743, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9ED2

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Japanese

Wikipedia ^ja

Wikipedia

黒

Kanji

黒 (grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. black

Readings

• On: こく (koku)
• Kun: くろ (kuro)

Compounds

Compounds

黒暗, 黒闇 (こくあん, kokuan): darkness, blackness; absence of virtue 黒影 (こくえい, kokuei): a silhouette, a dark shadow 黒色 (こくしょく, kokushoku): the colour black 黒点 (こくてん, kokuten): a black spot; a sunspot 黒板 (こくばん, kokuban): blackboard 暗黒, 闇黒 (あんこく, ankoku): darkness 漆黒 (しっこく, shikkoku): jet-black 白黒 (しらくら, shirakura): this and that, so-and-so, such-and-such: unspecified items brought up for criticism 白黒 (しろくろ, shirokuro): black and white; monochrome; a panic or startled state; confusion; a sex show

Etymology

From Old Japanese. Via root morpheme *kur, cognate with kuri (涅, "black mud from the bed of a body of water"), noun kura (暗, "darkness; deception"; 蔵, 倉, 庫 "dark storehouse") > adjective kurai (暗い, "dark"), verb kuru > kureru (暮れる, "to become dark; to near the end [of a day, of a year, of a life]"; 暗れる, 眩れる, "to become depressed, to become dreary of mood"). Compare Proto-Turkic *kara (“black”), Mongolian хар (khar, “black”).

Possibly cognate with Korean 구름 (kureum, “cloud”); compare also Japanese 雲 (kumo, “cloud”) and Korean *검 (geom, “black”), root morpheme of 검다 (“to be black”, ve​rb), 검은 (“black”, adjective).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA: /ku.ɽo/, [kɯᵝ.ꜜɽo̞]

Noun

黒 (hiragana くろ, romaji kuro)

1. the colour black
2. a 女房詞 (nyōbōshi, “woman's word”) for 鍋 (nabe, “pot, pan”) or 釜 (kama, “pot, kettle”)
3. (accounting) short for 黒字 (kuroji): black as an accounting term, indicating a profit
4. (euphemistic) short for 黒幕 (kuromaku): a black curtain, a euphemism for someone influencing or controlling matters from behind the scenes
5. guilt; the guilty one, the guilty party
6. (slang) anarchy as a belief system or philosophy; an anarchist

Synonyms

• (pot, pan): 鍋 (なべ, nabe)
• (pot, kettle): 釜 (かま, kama)
• (profits): 黒字 (くろじ, kuroji)
• (controller behind the scenes): 黒幕 (くろまく, kuromaku)
• (guilt): 有罪 (ゆうざい, yūzai)
• (anarchy): 無政府主義 (むせいふしゅぎ, museifu shugi)
• (anarchist): 無政府主義者 (むせいふしゅぎしゃ, museifu shugisha)

Antonyms

• (guilt): 白 (しろ, shiro): innocence

Derived terms

• 黒い (くろい, kuroi): black (adjective)
• 黒っぽい (くろっぽい, kuroppoi): blackish, dark
• 黒み (くろみ, kuromi): [[blackness], a black tinge
• 黒ん坊 (くろんぼう, kuronbō): a deeply tanned person; (derogatory) a black person; a stagehand wearing black or dark clothing; a monk wearing black clothing; rotten black seeds, particularly grain that has rotted on the stalk
• 黒金, 鉄 (くろがね, kurogane): iron

Related terms

• 盲 (めくら, mekura): blindness
• 涅 (くり, kuri): black mud from the bed of a body of water
• 呉 (くれ, Kure): (obsolete) China (from sense of "where the sun sets")
• 暗 (くら, kura): darkness; deception, fraud
• 暗がり (くらがり, kuragari): darkness
• 蔵, 倉, 庫 (くら, kura): a (dark) storehouse
• 暗い (くらい, kurai): dark
• 暮れる (くれる, kureru): to become dark; to near the end (of a day, of a year, of a life)
• 暗れる, 眩れる (くれる, kureru): to become depressed, to become dreary of mood
• 晦ます (くらます, kuramasu): to conceal oneself, to abscond; to deceive, to fool
• 冥き途 (くらきみち, kurakimichi): underworld, realm of the dead
• 暮れ六つ (くれむつ, kuremutsu): Edo-period term for a time of day, roughly 6 pm
• 暮れ方 (くれがた, kuregata): evening, sunset, nightfall
• 暮れ泥む (くれなずむ, kurenazumu): to grow dark slowly

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Korean

Hanja

黒 (hangeul 흑, revised heuk, McCune-Reischauer hŭk, Yale huk)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

黒 (pinyin dǎn (dan3), hēi (hei1), Wade-Giles tan³, hei¹)

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Vietnamese

Han character

黒 (hắc)