Example sentences
wài外miàn面xià下yǔ雨le了。
It's raining outside.
tā他zài在wài外miàn面děng等nǐ你。
He's waiting for you outside.
The story behind the character
外
外 is 夕 (evening) plus 卜, the crack in a divination bone. Xu Shen's reading goes like this: divination belongs to first light. Do it after dark and the matter has already left you behind. Look at the crack itself and you get another one. The bone splits into a spine with branches, and the side the branches miss is the outside.