King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “countenance”

颜色
yán sè
Traditional: 顏色
color; countenance; appearance; facial expression

The closest CC-CEDICT match for countenance is 颜色 (yán sè), defined as: color; countenance; appearance; facial expression; pigment; dyestuff.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

颜 yán
face, facial appearance
radical 181 ⾴ · 15 strokes
色 sè
color, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex
radical 139 ⾊ · 6 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “countenance”

WordPinyinMeaning
容róngto hold; to contain
颜 (顏)yáncolor; face
长相 (長相)zhǎng xiàngappearance; looks
嘴脸 (嘴臉)zuǐ liǎnfeatures, face (esp. derogatorily); look
眉眼méi yǎnbrows and eyes; appearance

Related words

Other words that share a character with 颜色.

WordPinyinMeaning
颜料 (顏料)yán liàopaint; dye
颜面 (顏面)yán miànface; prestige
容颜 (容顏)róng yánmien; complexion
颜值 (顏值)yán zhíattractiveness index (rating of how good-looking sb is)
颜射 (顏射)yán shèto ejaculate onto sb's face
角色jué sèrole; part (in a play or movie etc); also pr. [jiao3se4]
特色tè sèa characteristic; a distinctive feature or quality
绿色 (綠色)lǜ sègreen

See also: Japanese symbol for “countenance”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.