Meaning of 五颜六色
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- multicolored
- every color under the sun
How to use 五颜六色
五颜六色 describes something full of many bright colors, like flowers, balloons, clothes or lights. It often comes before 的 to describe a noun, or after 是 or 得. Example: 花园里开满了五颜六色的花。(Huāyuán lǐ kāi mǎn le wǔyán-liùsè de huā.) The garden is full of flowers of every color.
Take the word 颜色 (yánsè, color) and split it apart, then put a number in front of each half: 五 (wǔ, five) 颜 and 六 (liù, six) 色. Five colors plus six colors means so many colors you stop counting.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes swap the numbers and say 六颜五色, but the order is always 五 then 六. Also do not use it as a noun meaning "color" in a sentence like 我喜欢这个五颜六色. Use 颜色 for that, and keep 五颜六色 as a describing word.
五颜六色 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
五 wǔ · five · 4 strokes
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颜 yán · face · 15 strokes
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六 liù · six · 4 strokes
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色 sè · color · 6 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 五颜六色.
| 颜色 | yánsè | color; countenance |
| 红色 | hóngsè | red (color); revolutionary |
| 黑色 | hēisè | black |
| 蓝色 | lánsè | blue (color) |
| 白色 | báisè | white; fig. reactionary |
| 绿色 | lǜsè | green |
| 黄色 | huángsè | yellow; vulgar; lewd; pornographic |
| 景色 | jǐngsè | scenery; landscape; view |
| 特色 | tèsè | a characteristic; a distinctive feature or quality |
| 彩色 | cǎisè | color; multicolored |
| 角色 | juésè | role; part (in a play or movie etc); also pr. [jiao3se4] |
| 出色 | chūsè | remarkable; outstanding |
Questions about 五颜六色
What does 五颜六色 mean?
五颜六色 (wǔyán-liùsè) means "multicolored; every color under the sun".
How do you write 五颜六色?
五颜六色 is made of 4 characters: 五 (4 strokes), 颜 (15 strokes), 六 (4 strokes), 色 (6 strokes). That is 29 strokes in total.
Is 五颜六色 an HSK word?
Yes. 五颜六色 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 五颜六色 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 五颜六色 is written 五顏六色.
Does 五颜六色 mean exactly eleven colors?
No. The numbers are not literal. 五 and 六 together just mean "many," so the phrase means multicolored or colorful in general.
Is 五颜六色 positive or negative?
It is usually neutral or positive, describing something bright and lively. In some contexts it can hint that colors are too mixed or messy, but the tone mostly comes from the rest of the sentence.