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廬山真面目

简庐山真面目 · 繁廬山真面目

Cantonese · source Jyutpinglou4 saan1 zan1 min6 muk6

the real appearance of a person or thing; one's true chracters (idiom)

About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

lou44 · low fallingsaan11 · high levelzan11 · high levelmin66 · low levelmuk66 · low levelchecked · -k

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Same syllable, six tones

lou噜lou1grumble 佬lou2man / guy / bloke / dudelou3—劳lou4to toil 老lou5prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral…路lou6road

saan删saan1to delete 馓saan2散saan3to scatter 孱saan4weaklingsaan5—saan6—

zan真zan1really 轸zan2square 震zan3to shakezan4—zan5—阵zan6disposition of troops

minmin1—min2—min3—绵min4silk floss 免min5to excuse sb 面min6flour

mukmuk1—muk2—muk3—muk4—muk5—木muk6tree

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

廬山真面目庐

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: Lu2 Shan1 zhen1 mian4 mu4. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lou4 saan1 zan1 min6 muk6

Cantonese word readings for 廬山真面目. 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.

noun

(figuratively, idiomatic) the real and original face (or appearance) of someone (or something)
(figuratively, idiomatic) the truth about a person or matter (that is not easy to recognize); the true nature of someone or something

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

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