DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
素
Mandarin · pinyin sù
Meanings
- raw silk
- white
- plain, unadorned
- vegetarian (food)
- essence
- nature
- element
- constituent
- usually
- always
- ever
Characters in this entry
- 素
- sù · white (silk); plain; vegetarian; formerly; normally
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4 · su4
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
1character link57same-tone records
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Read this spelling in Classical texts
Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 9 senses · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
sou3
Cantonese word readings for 素. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
character
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) white silk
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) silk or paper used for writing
- white
- plain
- vegetarian (food)
- original; unprocessed
- usually; always; all along
- element
- (mathematics) prime
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack