脸 (liǎn): face

脸 (liǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “face.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (semantic) and 佥 (phonetic). It ranks #615 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 脸 flesh. Its radical form 月 (moon) appears in many related characters such as 月 (yuè, moon, month), 有 (yǒu, to have), 朋 (péng, friend).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. face

Etymology & Origin

脸

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼佥 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Practice writing 脸 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 脸

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
脸色nounliǎn sècomplexion5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
丢脸verbdiū liǎnto lose face
脸部nounliǎn bùface
脸蛋nounliǎn dàncheek
笑脸nounxiào liǎnsmiling face
脸红verbliǎn hóngto blush
不要脸verbbù yào liǎnto have no sense of shame
脸颊nounliǎn jiácheek
脸庞nounliǎn pángface
鬼脸nounguǐ liǎnwry face
脸孔nounliǎn kǒngface
脸皮nounliǎn píface
赏脸verbshǎng liǎn(polite) do me the honor
嘴脸nounzuǐ liǎnfeatures, face (esp. derogatorily)
翻脸verbfān liǎnto fall out with sb
露脸verblòu liǎnto show one's face
100
Total compounds
30
As first character
63
As last character
7
As middle character

脸 appears in 100 compound words: 30 as the first character, 63 as the last, and 7 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 脸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

颊jiá
0.656491 co-occurrences
捂wǔ
0.52338 co-occurrences
谱pǔ
0.477404 co-occurrences
丢diū
0.477176 co-occurrences
识shí
0.459794 co-occurrences
疤bā
0.45278 co-occurrences
庞páng
0.435164 co-occurrences
笑xiào
0.430454 co-occurrences
苍cāng
0.42490 co-occurrences
娃wá
0.419250 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

鼻青脸肿bíqīngliǎnzhǒngHSK 6+

to be black and blue in the face; with a bloody nose and swollen face; to suffer a major setback

phrase
愁眉苦脸chóuméikǔliǎnHSK 6+

with knitted brows and a doleful look; looking distressed

phrase
急赤白脸jí chì bái liǎnHSK 7+

to worry oneself sick; to fret

phrase
哭丧着脸kūsāng zhe liǎnHSK 6+

to put on a long face; to look unhappy or depressed

verb
脸黄肌瘦liǎn huáng jī shòuHSK 5+

see 面黃肌瘦|面黄肌瘦

phrase
劈头盖脸pītóugàiliǎnHSK 7+

to one's face; directly towards someone

phrase
死皮赖脸sǐpílàiliǎnHSK 6+

brazen and unreasonable; thick-skinned and hard to shake off

phrase
桃腮粉脸táo sāi fěn liǎnHSK 6+

rosy-cheeked (idiom)

phrase
杏脸桃腮xìng liǎn táo sāi

(idiom) (of a woman) having a fair complexion with rosy cheeks; beautiful

phrase

Showing 9 of 11 idioms containing 脸.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

人脸识别技术已经广泛应用于手机解锁和支付验证。

Rénliǎn shíbié jìshù yǐjīng guǎngfàn yìngyòng yú shǒujī jiěsuǒ hé zhīfù yànzhèng.

Facial recognition technology is already widely used for phone unlocking and payment verification.

NewsFeb 2026

酒局洗脸球星尪 刘雨柔暴怒:孩子不是我一人

jiǔ jú xǐ liǎn qiú xīng 尪 liú yǔ róu bào nù hái zǐ bù shì wǒ yī rén

Liu Yurou was furious: I am not the only child in the country

NewsFeb 2026

经典赛》王建民撞脸SJ希澈的飘发照 韩媒也关注

jīng diǎn sài wáng jiàn mín zhuàng liǎn xī chè de piāo fā zhào hán méi yě guān zhù

Classic" Wang Jianmin hit SJ Heechul's hair photo in the face Korean media also paid attention

NewsFeb 2026

Meta 智慧眼镜传加入脸部辨识功能,隐私风险急升高

zhì huì yǎn jìng chuán jiā rù liǎn bù biàn shí gōng néng , yǐn sī fēng xiǎn jí shēng gāo

Meta Smart Glasses Reportedly Add Facial Recognition Feature, Privacy Risks Soar

NewsFeb 2026

...秘2026妆容关键字 妆前急救“5分钟小脸”诀窍公开

. . . mì zhuāng róng guān jiàn zì zhuāng qián jí jiù fēn zhōng xiǎo liǎn jué qiào gōng kāi

Secret 2026 Makeup Keywords: Revealing the "5-Minute Face-Slimming" Trick for Last-Minute Makeup Rescue

NewsFeb 2026

.....梨山工寮遭纵火 民众拍照赫见“鬼面笑脸”

. . . . . lí shān gōng 寮 zāo zòng huǒ mín zhòng pāi zhào hè jiàn guǐ miàn xiào liǎn

Arson at Lishan Work Camp: Residents Photograph Mysterious "Ghostly Smiling Face"

Tatoeba

什么事?干嘛一脸凶巴巴的。

Shénmeshì? gànmá yī liǎn xiōng bābā de.

What's the matter? You look very angry.

Tatoeba

你脸色看起来好苍白。你没事吧?

Nǐ liǎnsè kànqǐlai hǎo cāngbái. nǐ méishì ba?

You look very pale. Are you OK?

Tatoeba

要是脸书上没有你,你就不存在!

Yàoshi Liǎnshū shàng méiyǒu nǐ, nǐ jiù bù cúnzài!

If you're not on Facebook, you don't exist!

Tatoeba

假如你认识这张脸,请拨打110!

Jiǎrú nǐ rènshi zhè zhāng liǎn, qǐng bōdǎ yāo yāo líng!

If you recognize this person, call 110!

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced liǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 脸 (liǎn) mean in Chinese?
脸 (liǎn) primarily means "face." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #615 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 脸 and 验?
脸 (liǎn) and 验 (yàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 月 vs 马 (same 佥 component).
How many strokes does 脸 have?
脸 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 脸?
The radical associated with 脸 is 月 (moon). This radical appears in many characters related to moon.
What are the components of 脸?
脸 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 佥 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼佥 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 脸?
Common words with 脸 include: 丢脸 (diū liǎn, "to lose face"); 脸色 (liǎn sè, "complexion"); 脸部 (liǎn bù, "face"); 脸蛋 (liǎn dàn, "cheek"); 笑脸 (xiào liǎn, "smiling face"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 脸 (liǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liǎn: 敛 ((literary) to hold back), 联 (connect, unite). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 脸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 脸 and the traditional form is 臉.

Practice writing 脸 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.