What does 晚 mean in Chinese?

晚 is a Chinese character with the radical 日.

How do you write 晚?

晚 is written with 11 strokes, starting from the 日 (sun) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 晚?

The radical of 晚 is 日 (sun, Kangxi radical #72). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 时, 明, 日, 是.

How many strokes does 晚 have?

The Chinese character 晚 has 11 strokes.

What HSK level is 晚?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 晚 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

晚: Chinese Character Details

晚

HSK 1 character 11 strokes Radical: 日 (sun)

Quick Answer

晚 is a Chinese character with 11 strokes, radical 日 (sun), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 晚 →Animated stroke-order for 晚 →

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

晚 is a relatively late phono-semantic compound and does not appear in oracle bone script in its current form. It is built from 日 (sun) as the semantic component and 免 (miǎn, 'to avoid, escape') as the phonetic. The logic is transparent: the sun has 'escaped' below the horizon, so it is evening.

Form evolution

The character is first attested clearly in seal script as 日 on the left and 免 on the right. Clerical script squared the 日 into its modern rectangular form and straightened the curves of 免. 楷书 tightened the proportions but kept the same two-part structure used today.

How the meaning evolved

The core meaning 'evening, late in the day' has been stable since the character was coined. From there it extended to 'late' in a general temporal sense; late in a season, late in life, too late for something; giving compounds like 晚年 (old age), 晚上 (evening), and 来晚了 (arrived late). No major semantic shift has occurred.

Cultural note

A common learner confusion is treating 晚 as purely a noun ('evening'), but in 来晚了 and 睡得晚 it works as a predicate adjective meaning 'late'. The 免 on the right is purely phonetic in Old Chinese and no longer sounds close to wǎn; a good reminder that phonetic components drift over millennia.

Mnemonic

The sun is freed from duty — evening

Decomposition

晚=日radical+免component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Stroke count	11 strokes
Radical	日 (#72: sun)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1
Frequency	#782 most common

Example sentences

晚上我看电视。
Wǎnshang wǒ kàn diànshì.
In the evening I watch TV.
From 晚上 (HSK 1)
傍晚时分，夕阳把天空染成了金红色，美丽极了。
Bàngwǎn shífēn, xīyáng bǎ tiānkōng rǎn chéng le jīn hóngsè, měilì jí le.
At dusk, the sunset dyed the sky golden red, extremely beautiful.
From 傍晚 (HSK 5)