白
bái · HSK 1
white
⚪ Sounds like 'bye' — a blank, white page waving you off
白 (bái) depicts a sun 日 with a stroke on top, suggesting the bright white light of dawn. The bone-oracle form showed a white grain of rice or an acorn. Today it carries 'white, plain, clear, blank' — as in 白纸 (blank paper).
白 — pictograph; resembles 日 (sun) with a stroke on top
白 is generally considered a pictograph, traditionally explained as depicting the sun rising with a ray of light above it, hence the meaning 'white' or 'bright.' Some scholars instead see it as a drawing of a thumbnail or an acorn. From 'bright' it extended to 'clear,' 'plain,' and 'to state plainly.'