Example sentences
jīn今tiān天shì是yīn阴tiān天。
Today is overcast.
tiān天yīn阴le了，yào要xià下yǔ雨。
It's overcast, it's going to rain.
The story behind the character
阴
阴 is 阝, a hill, with 月 in the modern simplified form. Xu Shen defined the older character 陰 by pure geography: 水之南，山之北也, the north slope of a hill, the south bank of a river. Those are the sides that never get the sun straight on. So 阴 is shade, and later the dark half of yin and yang.