Dictionary › 凌晨

凌晨

líng chén

HSK 6 2-character word

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.