yán

face

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
彥 sound component

  Sound component

yàn

  

elegant

頁 meaning component

  Meaning component

xié

  

(head), page

Depicts a head.

Evolution

顏 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
顏 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
顏 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
顏 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

yán

face, facial appearance; color; face; countenance

() 

Yán

surname Yan

Most common words with 顏
Freq.
Word
Meaning

颜色

color

color

颜料

paint

颜面

face

容颜

mien

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C.ŋˤrar

ngaen

yán

face, forehead

*C.ŋˤrar

ngaen

yán

surname


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 21.9446% of movies

1472nd most common character in movies

1545th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

18

Simplified

Unicode

U+984F

Shuowen

“顏,眉目之閒也。从頁,彥聲。,籀文。”


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