黒い
くろい
hepburn kuroi
black (adjective)
Part of speech · i-adjective
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 黒い猫が好きです。I like black cats.
- 空が黒くなりました。The sky turned dark.
Collocations
黒い (kuroi, black — i-adj)黒くなる (kuroku naru, turn black)腹黒い (haraguroi, malicious — "black-bellied")日に焼けて黒い (hi ni yakete kuroi, tanned dark)黒い噂 (kuroi uwasa, dark rumor)
Mnemonic
黒い kuroi — i-adjective. Body + color idiom: 腹黒い (haraguroi, "black-bellied") = scheming, malicious — the metaphor that evil is hidden deep in the gut where it can't be seen. Korean has the literal parallel "the inside is pitch-black". Variant 黒い噂 (kuroi uwasa, "black rumors") = whispers of wrongdoing. Color → moral darkness is a stable cross-cultural mapping; the adjective stays literal with clothing/skin but turns metaphorical with abstract nouns.
Quick check
Meaning of 腹黒い人?