颜

顏
yán
#1,543 most
frequent character
color, face, countenance

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

颜 pairs 彦 yàn, which supplies the sound, with 页, a head-focused person. The head part points to the first meaning, 'forehead.' From there it grew to 'face,' then 'facial expression,' and finally 'color; countenance.'

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Same Characters, Different Readings

颜Yan2
surname Yan
颜yán
Japanese variant of 顏|颜[yan2]

Homophones

HSK 4
盐yán
salt
严yán
strict, tight, severe, stern
沿yán
along, follow
炎yán
flame, inflammation, -itis

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