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物色

Mandarin · pinyin wù sè

to look for; to seek out; to choose

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Characters in this entry

物: wù · thing, substance, creature
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

4–4 · wu4 se4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 7 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mat6 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 物色. 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.

verb

to seek out; to scout out; to look for
(archaic) to search for and seize; to apprehend

noun

(literally) colours of some object
(archaic) appearance
(literary) scenery
(Classical) fur colour of livestock
(Wenzhounese) thing; object

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

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