五彩斑斓 (wǔ cǎi bān lán) — (idiom) a riot of colors; colorful and brilliant

Definition

A vivid chengyu for dazzling, multi-colored brilliance — stronger and more literary than simply 多彩 or 鲜艳.

idiom
a riot of colorscolorful and brilliant

Examples

  • 五彩斑斓，。
    Qiū tiān de shān lín wǔ cǎi bān lán, měi dé xiàng yì fú huà.
    The autumn mountains and forests are a riot of colors, as beautiful as a painting.
  • 五彩斑斓，。
    Tā chuān zhuó yì tiáo wǔ cǎi bān lán de cháng qún, xī yǐn le suǒ yǒu rén de mù guāng.
    She wore a brilliantly colorful long dress, attracting everyone's attention.
  • 五彩斑斓，。
    Hǎi dǐ shì jiè wǔ cǎi bān lán, gè zhǒng shān hú hé yú r ràng rén mù bù xiá jiē.
    The underwater world is a riot of colors — all kinds of corals and fish dazzle the eyes.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

五彩five colors
五wǔfive彩cǎicolor
偏正Modifier + head
斑斓brilliant colors
斑bānspot斓lánbrilliant
联合Side by side

五 and 彩 give 'five colors', while 斑 and 斓 give 'brilliant colors', so the colors are brilliant.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
彡彡shān
Sound part声符shēngfú
采
采cǎi彩cǎi
Same sound today

彩 puts 采, which gives the sound, next to 彡, the three-stroke mark that carries the meaning.

Open 彩 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
文文wénpattern
Sound part声符shēngfú
班
班bān斑bān
Same sound today

斑 uses 文 to show a pattern and 班 to give its sound.

Open 斑 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 斕; 斓 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
文文wén
Sound part声符shēngfú
闌
闌lán斕
Same sound today

The traditional form 斕 is built from 文 and 闌, with 闌 giving the sound. The simplified 斓 is a later shorthand, so its right side is not the historical sound part.

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