顔

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 顔を洗います。▶ —
   I wash my face.
2. 彼の顔を覚えています。▶ —
   I remember his face.

Collocations

Mnemonic

かお — 顔, Yamato. A word that starts at a body part and reaches all the way into society. The kanji 顔 splits as 頁 (head) + 彦 (handsome) = a human face. A whole social cluster grows on this single word ── 顔色 kaoiro (face-colour = the read on someone's mood). 顔を出す kao wo dasu (show one's face = drop by briefly). 顔が広い kao ga hiroi (wide face = well-connected). 顔を潰す kao wo tsubusu (crush the face = cause loss of face). Korean chemyeon chemyeon and Chinese 面子 mianzi run on the exact same social mechanism ── a shared East Asian grammar of social face. 笑顔 egao (smiling face) has frozen into a single word.

Quick check

1. Idiomatic meaning of 顔が広い?

   • Well-connected, with a wide social network
   • Physically wide face
   • Big mouth
   • Broad vision