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五光十色

Mandarin · pinyin wǔ guāng shí sè

(idiom) bright and multicolored; of rich variety; dazzling; glitzy

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Characters in this entry

五: wǔ · five; surname
光: guāng · light, brilliant, shine; only
十: shí · ten, tenth; complete; perfect
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.

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2–4 · wu3 guang1 shi2 se4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ng5 gwong1 sap6 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 五光十色. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) varied and multicolored

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

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