the gloom of the grave a tomb or grave

A dark  cave  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
xué, jué cave
SoundMeaning component
evening

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangljaːɡ

說文解字

窀穸也。从穴夕聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica