Taxonomy of meanings for 昭:　　

Additional information about 昭

說文解字: 【昭】，日明也。从日、召聲。 【止遙切】 〔小徐本此字次於「昕」字之後。〕

Criteria
• SHOW
  

  1. The most general word for making anything visible is shì 示 (ant. hán 含 "keep to oneself").

  2. Xiàn 見 / 現 (ant. bì 蔽 "make invisible to others,") refers to making visible what is there.

  3. Xiǎn 顯 (ant. yǐn 隱 "hide from sight") is to make something prominently visible to wider audience.

  4. Yáng 揚 (ant. yì 抑 "suppress and keep from general knowledge") is to make something universally visible to the general public.

  5. Zhù 著 (ant. bì 蔽 "block from sight") is to show something up as deserving great attention.

  6. Chén 陳 (ant. cáng 藏 "hide") is to lay out something so as to make it accessible to inspection.

  7. Zhāo 昭 (yōu 幽 "keep in obscurity") is to cast light over something so as to make it accessible to wide appreciation.

  8. Zhāng 彰 (ant. yì 抑 is to give proper illustrious public status to something that is held to clearly deserve such recognition.

  9. Zhú 燭 (ant. yǐn 隱 "keep in the dark") is to cast enought light on something dark in order to make it visible.

  10. Pù 暴 is to make accessible to view what is covered and therefore inaccessible to inspection.

• BRIGHT
  

  1. The general term for what appears luminous or bright in the broadest sense of these terms is míng 明 (ant. àn 暗 "dark" and yǐn 隱 "dark"), a word heavily laden with religious overtones.

  2. Liàng 亮 "bright" (ant. yōu 幽 "dark and shady"), càn 燦 and làn 爛 are primarily optical and rather prosaic terms to use.

  3. Zhāo 昭 "resplendent" (ant. míng 冥 "dark"), gěng 耿 "brilliant", hào 皓 "shining bright", yè 燁, and hè 赫 "luminous" is a highly charged ritually high-flown word that belongs to court language, often with metaphorical force.

  4. Yáng 陽 "bright" (ant. yīn 陰 "dark") is simply the opposite of dark and does not connote any high degree of luminosity.

  5. Lǎng 朗 is an elevated word used to refer to things resplendent and bright.

  6. Hào 顥 and qíng 晴 "bright" refers to the brightness of the sky.

  7. Yàn 宴／曣 refers specifically to the brightness of the sky.

  8. Guāng 光 refers generally to light or even resplendence. See LIGHT

  For causative uses see ILLUMINATE.

  For figurative uses see ILLUSTRIOUS

• CLEAR
  

  1. The most general standard and clearly dominant word for things that are easily accessible to the intellect and to the senses is míng 明 (ant. hūn 昏 "unclear").

  2. Zhāng 彰 (ant. yǐn 隱 "obscure") is an elevated word for something being clear to the intellectual eye.

  3. Zhāo zhāo 昭昭 refers emphatically to perfect transparency and clarity.

  4. Chéng 澄 (ant. hún 混 "opaque") prototypically refers to the unruffled, clear state of water or the like. See PURE

  5. Primarily physical transparency is qīng 清 and the very rare chè 澈 (all ant. zhuó 濁 "muddled and unclear"). See PURE

• DARK
  

  1. The most current general word for physical shadowiness and obscurity is probably yōu 幽 (ant. míng 明 "bright"), but this word often has lyrical overtones of secluded peace.

  2. Míng 冥 (ant. guāng 光 "light"), hūn 昏 (ant. zhāo 昭 "bright") and the rarer mèi 昧 (ant. xiǎn 顯 "clear and manifest") refer freely to purely optical darkness and abstract obscurity.

  3. Xuán 玄 "very dark reddish-black" (ant. bái 白 "plain white") currently refers to mysterious obscurity of the abstract kind. See MYSTERIOUS

  4. Huì 晦 (ant. zhāng 彰 "plain and manifest") refers to obscurity, expecially of texts or of thoughts.

  5. Měng 蒙 (ant. yào 耀 "bright and clearly visible") refers to psychological dimness, obfuscation of mind.

  6. Yǐn 隱 focuses on the inaccessibility to discursive reasoning of what is mysterious.

  7. Àn 暗 / 闇 (ant. míng 明 "bright") can refer to darkness but most of the time this word actually refers abstractly to the benightedness of a ruler.

  8. Yīn 陰 "shadowy, shaded" (ant.* liàng 亮 "bright") describes the lack of light as contrasted with surrounding light.

  9. Ài 曖 is pervasive darkness as a general state, where mèi 昧 is darker than ài 曖.

  10. Hēi 黑 (ant.* hào 皓 "shiny and bright") is darkness imposed by the intrinsic darkness of pigment on an object. See BLACK.

  11. Yǎo 杳 is used in poetry as a general word referring to darkness.

  12. Wū 烏 (ant. hào 皓 "shining white") is quite rare and refers to a high degree of darkness that is without lustre not quite pitch dark.