noun HSK 4
midnight · the middle of the night · late at night
Meaning
半夜 literally means 'half night' and refers to the middle of the night, typically around midnight or the hours when most people are asleep. It emphasizes the lateness or darkness of the time period, often used when describing events that occur during these deep nighttime hours.
Usage
Native speakers use 半夜 to describe any time during the deep night hours, not necessarily exactly 12:00 AM. It commonly appears in narratives to set a dramatic or quiet scene, or to emphasize that something happened at an unusually late hour. Often paired with verbs describing sudden events or activities.
Examples
- 01他半夜被噩梦惊醒了。.He was awakened from a nightmare in the middle of the night.
- 02半夜还有人在敲门，真奇怪。, .Someone is still knocking on the door at midnight, how strange.
Characters
Common collocations
- 半夜三更in the dead of night
- 半夜起来to get up in the middle of the night
- 大半夜in the middle of the night (emphatic)
Antonyms
Origin
Compound of 半 (half) and 夜 (night), creating a straightforward descriptive term for the middle portion of the nighttime hours.