About
外 combines 夕 (evening, a variant of 月 "moon") as the sound component and 卜 (divination) as the meaning component. In ancient practice, daytime was the norm for divination, so performing one in the evening was considered an outside, irregular act, giving the character its core sense of "outside, external, foreign". Over time, the meaning broadened to include maternal relatives (those outside the patrilineal clan) and it commonly prefixes words for foreign countries, external affairs, or outward appearances.
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Example Sentences Hide
我在外面等你。
他来自外国。
外面下雨了。
他在外地工作。
我们计划去国外旅行。
除了学习，他还有课外活动。
这个问题涉及外交政策。
在意外事故发生之后，公司加强了安全管理。
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