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面黃肌瘦

简面黄肌瘦 · 繁面黃肌瘦

Mandarin · pinyin miàn huáng jī shòu

(lit.) face yellow and body emaciated (idiom)
(fig.) malnourished and sickly in appearance

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Characters in this entry

面: miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
黃: huáng · yellow; surname; Kangxi radical 201
肌: jī · muscle tissue; meat on bones
瘦: shòu · thin, emaciated, lean; meager
黄: huáng · yellow; surname

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–4 · mian4 huang2 ji1 shou4

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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.

面黃肌瘦 · find source passages ↗ · 面黄肌瘦 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

min6 wong4 gei1 sau3

Cantonese word readings for 面黃肌瘦. 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) to have a sallow complexion and emaciated body; to look sick or malnourished

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

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