夜晚
yè wǎn · HSK 7
night
🌙🌃 夜晚 = 夜 (night) + 晚 (late evening) — two night-words stacked for emphasis
夜 means night and 晚 means evening or late; together 夜晚 is the stretch of darkness, nighttime. 晚 also shows up in 晚上 (evening) and 晚安 (goodnight), so it reliably tags the late hours.
夜 — 亠 lid + 亻 person + 夕 evening moon
夜 originally depicted a person (亻) under a roof (亠) with the moon (夕) beside them, evoking nighttime rest. The moon component 夕 carries the meaning of evening, while the surrounding elements set the scene of a person at night. Over time it came to mean 'night' in general.
晚 — sun 日 + 免 (avoid/phonetic)
晚 combines 日 (sun) as the meaning component with 免 as the phonetic. The sun element signals a time of day, while 免 hints at the pronunciation wǎn. Originally it referred to the late part of the day when the sun is setting, and from there extended to mean 'late' in a general sense.