陰

音読おんよみ: イン

訓読くんよみ: かげ・かげる

画数かくすう: 11

部首ぶしゅ: こざとへん（阝）

Meaning

Shade / Shadow / Yin / Hidden / Secret.

  • 陰性いんせい — negative (result); yin quality
  • 陰影いんえい — shade; shading; chiaroscuro
  • 陰気いんき — gloomy; melancholic
  • 陰謀いんぼう — plot; conspiracy
  • 光陰こういん — time (as “light and shadow”); fleeting time
  • 陰険いんけん — insidious; crafty; underhanded
  • 陰湿いんしつ — gloomy; vicious; spiteful

陰 uses the place/hill radical 阝 (こざとへん) with a phonetic/semantic part suggesting the side away from the sun. Think of the shady face of a hill: from “shade, shadow” it extends to “the hidden side,” even the yin half of yin–yang.

光

Pair it in your mind with 光 (light): 光陰 — “light and shadow,” a classic way to mean “time.” Remember the saying 光陰矢のごとし — time flies like an arrow. Light vs. shadow makes 陰 feel like the shaded, hidden side.

性
Forms

陰性いんせい — negative (test result); yin-like quality

◀︎ Sayings+ ▶︎