How to Write 溟 (míng) — Meaning “deep sea; drizzle”

Imagine a dark, misty ocean (氵) under a dim sky where the sun has been covered (冥 suggests darkness). Picture the character as "water" plus "darkness" — the deep sea is dark and drizzly. Think of the phrase "dark water" to link 溟 to its meanings of deep sea and drizzle.

Pay attention to the right side 冥: it has six strokes and includes a small 冖 (roof) at the top, then 日 (sun) and 大 (big) below — but note that 日 is narrow and 大 is wide. A common mistake is making the 冖 too small or forgetting the horizontal stroke inside 日. Keep the left radical 氵 compact and aligned with the right side.

溟 (míng) uses the phonetic 冥, meaning deep sea/drizzle, while 涪 (fú) uses 咅 and is a place name (Fú River in Sichuan) and 涫 (guān) uses 官 and means boiling water. Visually, 溟 has a sun (日) under a roof, whereas 涪 has 咅 (a mouth with a stroke) and 涫 has 官 (with a roof and two mouths). The radicals differ in the right components.

溟 appears in poetry and classical literature to describe vast, mysterious oceans or misty rain, like in 溟海 (vast ocean) or 溟蒙 (misty). It is not common in daily conversation but evokes a sense of depth and obscurity. Culturally, it is often associated with the boundless sea in Daoist or ancient Chinese cosmological texts.

Common words containing 溟 include: 溟蒙 (míng méng) — misty and drizzly; 溟海 (míng hǎi) — vast ocean; deep sea; 溟溟 (míng míng) — drizzling; misty; dark and deep.