中午
noon; midday
HSK level
- Pinyin
- zhōngwǔ
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 8
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 中午
中午 is written with 8 strokes (中: 4, 午: 4). The animation replays automatically.
What does 中午 mean?
中午 (zhōngwǔ) means 'noon' or 'midday' — the time period in the middle of the day, roughly 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m., centered on 12 noon. Literally 'middle-noon,' it pairs with the other times of day every Mandarin learner needs: 早上 (morning), 上午 (late morning, before noon), 中午 (noon / lunch period), 下午 (afternoon), 晚上 (evening). A few practical notes. First, 中午 is the time block strongly associated with lunch — '中午吃什么' is asking 'what are you having for lunch'.
Second, 中午 functions as a time-when expression directly, no preposition needed: 我中午回家 (I'm going home at noon), not 在中午. Third, when telling clock time, 中午十二点 (zhōngwǔ shí'èr diǎn) is the standard way to say 'noon' / '12 p.m.', distinguishing it from 半夜十二点 (midnight). The character 午 by itself appears in 上午 and 下午 — together they form a clean three-part day.
Character by character
Memory hook: 中 (middle) + 午 (noon-hour) = the middle of the day = noon.
Hear 中午 in real episodes
中午 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
中午，别的学生去吃饭，刘欢去弹钢琴。
At noon, the other students went to eat, and Liu Huan went to play the piano.
Liu Huan, Who Sang the 2008 Beijing Olympics Theme 'You and Me,' Dies at 63
Example sentences
中午我们一起吃饭吧。
Zhōngwǔ wǒmen yìqǐ chī fàn ba.
Let's have lunch together at noon.
spoken
我中午不在家。
Wǒ zhōngwǔ bú zài jiā.
I'm not home at noon.
neutral
今天中午很热。
Jīntiān zhōngwǔ hěn rè.
It's very hot at noon today.
spoken
明天中午十二点见。
Míngtiān zhōngwǔ shí'èr diǎn jiàn.
See you tomorrow at 12 noon.
neutral
Common phrases with 中午
Synonyms
正午 specifically means '12:00 sharp / high noon' and is more formal/literary. 中午 covers the broader noon period (roughly 11-1) and is everyday speech.
Don't confuse 中午 with
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 中午 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
You just saw 中午 in 1 episode. Fluentide keeps feeding you news episodes at your level, so this word — and thousands like it — resurface in real sentences until they stick. Full pinyin and translation every time. Free to start.