阴 (yīn) is a Chinese character meaning “shady”. It is written from 阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 月 (moon; month), side by side, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “shady; overcast”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
阝 + 月
Left–right structure
Structure from: 现代字形拆分（对照笔顺数据核验：阝 2 画 + 月 4 画 = 6 画）
Memory aid
A hillside (阝) on the left, the moon (月) on the right: the side of the hill the sun never reaches, lit only by the moon. Both parts are really in this character.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 阴天yīn tiāna cloudy day; overcast weather阴 = yīn
- 阴影yīn yǐngshadow; a shaded area阴 = yīn
- 阴森yīn sēngloomy; eerie; dark and forbidding阴 = yīn
- 阴谋yīn móuplot; conspiracy阴 = yīn
Go deeper
All readings
shady; overcast
shady; overcast; cloudy; shade; the yin principle (opposite of 阳)
晒不到太阳的一面；天空布满云。也指中国传统观念中与「阳」相对的一面。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 阴天yīn tiāna cloudy day; overcast weather阴 = yīn
- 阴影yīn yǐngshadow; a shaded area阴 = yīn
- 阴森yīn sēngloomy; eerie; dark and forbidding阴 = yīn
- 阴谋yīn móuplot; conspiracy阴 = yīn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 阴 mean?
阴 (yīn) means shady; overcast; cloudy; shade; the yin principle (opposite of 阳).
How do you pronounce 阴?
It is pronounced yīn.
What parts is 阴 made of?
阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 月 (moon; month), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分（对照笔顺数据核验：阝 2 画 + 月 4 画 = 6 画）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 阴 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 阴?
阜. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 阴?
Common ones are 阴天 and 阴影. The reading of 阴 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.