本来面目 — Chinese idiom
本来面目
běn lái miàn mù
Traditional: 本來面目
Meaning
- true colors; true features; original appearance
Character by character
- 本běnroot, origin, source; basis
- 来láito arrive, to come, to return; in the future, late
- 面miànface; surface, side; plane, dimension
- 目mùeye; to look, to see; division, topic
Idioms sharing a character
- 一本正经 yī běn zhèng jīng
- 一本万利 yī běn wàn lì
- 报本反始 bào běn fǎn shǐ
- 慈悲为本 cí bēi wéi běn
- 舍本逐末 shě běn zhú mò
- 本性难移 běn xìng nán yí
- 本末倒置 běn mò dào zhì
- 看家本领 kān jiā běn lǐng
- 血本无归 xuè běn wú guī
- 变本加厉 biàn běn jiā lì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.