黒い

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 黒い猫が好きです。▶ —
   I like black cats.
2. 空が黒くなりました。▶ —
   The sky turned dark.

Collocations

Mnemonic

くろい — 黒い, Yamato. An i-adjective. With 青 · 赤 · 白, 黒 fills the last seat of Japan's ancient four-colour set. The kanji 黒 pictures soot built up inside a chimney — 'the colour blackened by fire'. Literally: clothes, hair, sky are 黒い. The metaphor chain runs toward moral darkness ── 腹黒い haraguroi (a 'black belly'): scheming, ill-intentioned. The image: evil hidden deep inside, where it cannot be seen. 黒い噂 kuroi uwasa (a 'black rumour'): whispers of wrongdoing. Korean shares the same imagery: 'sogi sikeomeota / simboga geomda' (the inside is pitch-black). Black-to-evil is one of the most stable cross-cultural mappings ── one colour gestures at both the absence of light and the absence of good.

Quick check

1. Meaning of 腹黒い人?

   • A scheming, malicious person
   • A person with a dark-colored belly
   • A person dressed in black
   • A person with bad digestion