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青面獠牙

Mandarin · pinyin qīng miàn liáo yá

ferocious-looking (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

青: qīng · blue, green; young; Kangxi radical 174
面: miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
獠: liáo · to hunt at night by torches
牙: yá · tooth, molars, teeth; serrated

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–2 · qing1 mian4 liao2 ya2

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cing1 min6 liu4 ngaa4

Cantonese word readings for 青面獠牙. 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) green-faced and long-toothed; terrifying in appearance

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

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