(miàn) - face, surface, side, noodles, flour in Mandarin

miàn

Traditional: 面

#1800 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

face, surface, side, noodles, flour

Word origin

Originally a pictograph of a face framed by an outline, later extended to mean surface, side, and aspect, and when written for the food sense it covers flour and noodles.

Origin: pictograph
Root: 目 (mù, eye) within a framing outline of the face

Stroke order

面

Examples

。

We finally met face to face.

。

The surface of the table is very smooth.

。

I had a bowl of noodles at noon.

。

This issue has two sides.

。

She stood in front of the house.

面 (miàn) is a broad noun covering face, surface, side, and aspect, and it also means flour and noodles (a sense once written 麵 in traditional script). The right reading is almost always clear from context.

Where this fits

The 1,000 most common Mandarin words

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Appears in 10 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 面.

里面lǐ miàninside, interior, within 外面wài miànoutside, exterior, outdoors 上面shàng miànabove, on top, on the surface 后面hòu miànbehind, at the back 下面xià miànbelow, under, beneath 面前miàn qiánin front of, before (someone's face)见面jiàn miànto meet (in person)前面qián miànfront, ahead, in front 面对miàn duìto face, to confront 方面fāng miànaspect, side, respect

Used in

Grammar articles

(16)

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面: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "面" (face, surface, side, noodles, flour): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 36.