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紅顏禍水

简红颜祸水 · 繁紅顏禍水

Mandarin · pinyin hóng yán huò shuǐ

femme fatale

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Characters in this entry

紅: hóng · red, vermillion; blush, flush
顏: Look up this written character
禍: Look up this written character
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
红: hóng · red, vermillion; blush, flush
颜: yán · face, facial appearance
祸: huò · misfortune, calamity, disaster

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–3 · hong2 yan2 huo4 shui3

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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.

紅顏禍水 · find source passages ↗ · 红颜祸水 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hung4 ngaan4 wo6 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 紅顏禍水. 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) charming beauty who makes men fall and leads to disasters (such as a loss of wealth or reputation, or a toppled nation); dangerous woman; femme fatale (Classifier: 灘／滩)

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

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