Taxonomy of meanings for 耀:  

  • 耀 yào (OC: lewɡs MC: jiɛu) 弋照切 去 廣韻:【光耀 】
    • PRAISE
      • vtoNcausativemake shine> sing the praise of
    • SHINE
      • vtoNshine on
      • vidazzle; shine; be dazzling
      • vtoNcausativemake shine (on one)CH
    • LIGHT
      • NOBLE
        • CONFUSED
          • SEDUCE
            • REGIONS

              Additional information about 耀

              說文解字:

                Criteria
              • LIGHT

                1. The dominant general word for light of any kind is guāng 光.

                [GENERAL]; [[COMMON]]

                2. Huǒ 火 refers primarily to artificial light from burning lamps etc..

                [ARTIFICIAL]

                3. Xī 曦 refers to the nascent sunlight of the rising sun.

                4. Yào 耀 and huī 輝 refer to bright sunlight.

              • 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.

              • SHINE

                1. The most current general word for throwing light on something is zhào 照.

                2. Míng 明 is typically used in a transferred sense of making something visible and clear.

                3. Pù 曝 / 暴 is a dramatic physical word referring to the exposing of something blazing or scorching light.

                4. Yào 耀 is a dramatic word referring to shining a dazzling light on something.

                Word relations