日 Radical 72 — sun; day

Where the shape comes from

The sun: a circle with a mark at its centre, which the brush and the writing column squared into a rectangle with one stroke across it. Because the sun measures the day, 日 also means "day", and it heads characters about light and time: 是, 时, 早, 明, 星.

characters filed under 日

• 日rì (fourth tone, falling)sun; day; day of the month in a written date4
• 时/時shí (second tone, rising)time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of7
• 明míng (second tone, rising)bright; clear, evident; to understand; next (明天, 明年); the Ming dynasty8
• 是shì (fourth tone, falling)to be (am, is, are); yes, that is so; correct, right9