DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

面如土色

Mandarin · pinyin miàn rú tǔ sè

ashen-faced (idiom)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

面: miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
如: rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
土: tǔ · soil, earth; items made of earth
色: sè · color, tint, hue, shade; form, body; beauty, desire for beauty; Kangxi radical 139

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–2–3–4 · mian4 ru2 tu3 se4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

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.

面如土色 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

min6 jyu4 tou2 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 面如土色. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(simile) to look ashen; to look pale

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack