暗い

くらい · kurai · JLPT N5 · i-adj

dark

🌑 kurai sounds like cry: a dark, gloomy mood makes you cry

暗 = 日 (sun) + 音 (sound): with the sun gone, only sound is left to go by. That is dark. The reading kurai also echoes 黒 kuro (black), so the dark word and the black word share a root.

暗 — sun 日 + sound 音 (phonetic)
暗 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 日 (sun) component carries the meaning, suggesting absence of sunlight, while 音 (yīn, sound) provides the phonetic clue for the reading àn. Originally meaning 'dark' or 'dim,' it later extended to figurative senses like 'hidden' or 'secret.'

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