Learn Chinese Characters

Meaning

color; look; appearance; color; dice

Chinese: 颜色、神色或景象。

Hear the Four Tones

The same syllable “se” becomes a different word in each tone. 色 is the 4th tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.

Stroke Order

Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.

Common Words

  • 颜色yán sècolor; countenance; appearance; facial expression
  • 红色hóng sèred (color); revolutionary
  • 黑色hēi sèblack
  • 绿色lǜ sègreen
  • 白色bái sèwhite; fig. reactionary; anti-communist

Example Sentence

我最喜欢的颜色是蓝色。Wǒ zuì xǐ huan de yán sè shì lán sè.My favorite color is blue.

Izuìmost喜欢xǐ huanto likedeof颜色yán sècolorshìis蓝色lán sèblue (color)

Go deeper

Where this character comes from

An old graph (a person over a kneeling figure, read by some as the face flushing with feeling). It means ‘color; look, expression; scene; quality (of goods); kind’ (颜色, 脸色, 角色).

A way to remember it

‘Color’; also ‘look, expression’: 颜色, 脸色.