色 (sè): color; hue

Meanings

1 color; hue
2 look; expression; appearance
3 type; kind
4 sex; sexual desire

Characters

色

sè

color; look; desire

Examples

你喜欢什么颜色？

Nǐ xǐhuan shénme yánsè?

What color do you like?

她的脸色不太好。

Tā de liǎnsè bú tài hǎo.

She doesn't look well — her complexion is poor.

这里有各种各色的商品。

Zhèlǐ yǒu gèzhǒng gèsè de shāngpǐn.

This shop sells goods of every description.

Tips

usage

色 is the suffix in every color word: 红色 (red), 蓝色 (blue), 绿色 (green). It also forms appearance words (颜色 color, 脸色 complexion, 气色 healthy look), abstract-quality words (特色 characteristic, 角色 role), and — separately — words about sex/lust (色情 pornography, 好色 lecherous).

register

Second reading 色 (third tone, colloquial) is reserved for a handful of spoken words. The fixed one is 色子 (dice for gambling). You may also hear 掉色 (to lose color, of fabric) as a spoken variant of 掉色. Outside these niche uses it is always sè.

Components

ideograph

色 sè

facial expression; color

Indivisible six-stroke unit, indexed as its own Kangxi radical #139. Treat as a single abstract whole carrying the chain face-complexion → expression → hue → visible appearance. Historically depicted one person bending close over another, said to picture intimacy and the flush it brings to the face — from which 'color' generalised.

Radical

Color Kangxi #139

The color radical. The original sense was facial expression — what shows on a person's face — which then extended to 'color' generally. Indexes very few characters (艳 'glamorous' is the main resident). Mostly important as a free morpheme: it forms the suffix in every modern color word.