Chinese word

下午

Pronunciation

Pinyinxià wǔ

Meaning

  • nounafternoon

Example

下午我们在操场上踢足球。xià wǔ wǒ men zài cāo chǎng shàng tī zú qiú

In the afternoon, we play soccer on the playground.

Illustration for 下午 (afternoon)

More examples

今天下午下雨了。jīn tiān xià wǔ xià yǔ le

It rained this afternoon.

Core concept

It is the day's time window after noon and before evening, often treated as one block for plans.

Common phrases

  • 今天下午jīn tiān xià wǔ

    this afternoon

  • 明天下午míng tiān xià wǔ

    tomorrow afternoon

  • 下午两点xià wǔ liáng diǎn

    two in the afternoon

Similar words

上午shàng wǔ: The part of the day from morning until noon.
中午zhōng wǔ: The period around noon when people usually eat lunch.
晚上wǎn shàng: The evening and night period after daylight fades.
早上zǎo shàng: The beginning of the morning, when people get up and start the day.

Definition in Chinese

指一天中正午之后直到傍晚的一段时间，既可作名词也可作时间状语，常用于安排日程或说明时间。zhǐ yì tiān zhōng zhèng wǔ zhī hòu zhí dào bàng wǎn de yí duàn shí jiān jì kě zuò míng cí yě kě zuò shí jiān zhuàng yǔ cháng yòng yú ān pái rì chéng huò shuō míng shí jiān

Word origin

下 (xià, "after") + 午 (wǔ, "noon") makes a compact picture of the time that comes after noon.

Usage tips

  • Chinese can place a time expression before the action, so this word can come at the start of a sentence where English uses "in the afternoon".

Other meanings

  • in the afternoonadverb

Opposites

Related words

Word lists with this word