Dictionary › 凌晨

凌晨

líng chén

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 6 2-character word

凌晨 (líng chén) means "very early in the morning". It is an HSK 3.0 level 6 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 凌晨 means

1. very early in the morning
2. in the wee hours

The characters in 凌晨

• 凌língto approach; to rise high; thick ice
• 晨chénmorning; dawn; daybreak

Example sentences

• 我们聊到凌晨两点。
  We talked until two in the morning.
• 凶杀案于凌晨三到五点间发生。
  Xiōngshā'àn yú língchén sān dào wǔ diǎn jiān fāshēng.
  The murder happened between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
• 你凌晨两点才去睡觉吗？难怪你今天看起来这么没精神了。
  Nǐ língchén liǎng diǎn cái qù shuìjiào ma? nánguài nǐ jīntiān kànqǐlai zhème méi jīngshén le.
  You went to bed at 2 o'clock in the morning? No wonder you look sleepy today.
• 过年吃饺子的习俗和中国古代的计时法有关：中国古代把每一天分为十二个时段，每天开始是子时，相当于晚上11点到凌晨1点。
  Guònián chī jiǎozi de xísú hé Zhōngguó gǔdài de jìshífǎ yǒuguān: Zhōngguó gǔdài bǎ měi yī tiānfèn wèi shí'èr gè shíduàn, měitiān kāishǐ shì zǐshí, xiāngdāngyú wǎnshang 11 diǎn dào língchén 1 diǎn.
  The custom of eating dumplings on New Year's Eve is related to an ancient Chinese method of measuring time; in ancient China, each day was divided into twelve sections: the beginning of each day was called 'first time', which corresponds to the period from 11pm to 1am.

Where 凌晨 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · líng–lǐng (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read líng chén correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.