夜
Meaning in Englishnight, evening
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
夜 (yoru) means the period of darkness between sunset and sunrise; it functions as a temporal noun referring to evening and nighttime hours and is used to locate events, describe nighttime conditions, or evoke a nocturnal atmosphere.
Main meanings
- As a modifier in compounds to indicate activities or states occurring during the night rather than the day.
- Poetic or literary sense invoking darkness, solitude, secrecy, or calm associated with nighttime.
- Colloquial nuance shifting toward "late-night" or "overnight" in certain expressions.
- Used contrastively to mark topical differences between night and other times (e.g., contrasting habits or schedules).
How to use it
Used broadly in spoken and written Japanese to indicate when something happens (casual and neutral registers), to form compound nouns and adjectives about nighttime activities, and in literary contexts to set mood; in formal or technical contexts writers may prefer Sino-Japanese alternatives for nuance, while everyday speech often uses yoru to mark evening or night-time occurrences.
Variants and close terms
- 晩 (ban) — evening (earlier part of nighttime)
- 夜中 (yonaka) — midnight/middle of the night
- 夜間 (yakan) — nighttime (formal/technical)
- 深夜 (shinya) — late night/very late
- 昼 (hiru) — day (antonym)
Composition
夜 (yoru) centers on the pictographic component 夕 (yū) meaning "evening/sunset," combined with additional strokes historically representing a shelter or a person, together conveying the idea of evening leading into darkness and thus 'night'.
Origin
The lexical item 夜 (yoru) and its pronunciation are attested in Old Japanese and classical poetry (e.g., the Man'yōshū), reflecting its long-standing role in timekeeping, ritual schedules and seasonal literature; the concept of 'night' has been central to Japanese daily life and cultural practices since antiquity.
Word class
noun (名詞)