橙(chéng) - orange (colour) in Mandarin

橙 (chéng) is the colour orange, named directly after the fruit: the character also means "orange tree" or "orange fruit" in more literary or botanical contexts, much like English uses one word for both the fruit and the colour.

In everyday speech it almost always appears as 橙色 (chéngsè), literally "orange colour": 橙色的衬衣 (chéngsè de chènyī), an orange shirt. A bare 橙 (chéng) before a noun is rarer and reads as slightly formal or written.

Do not confuse it with 桔子 (júzi) or 橘子 (júzi), the fruit itself, which uses a different character. 橙 (chéng) names the colour; 桔子 (júzi) names the thing you peel and eat.