HSK 6 · Adjectives

苍白 cāngbái “pale” in Chinese

Traditional 蒼白

What 苍白 means

  1. pale
  2. pallid
  3. feeble
  4. wan

How to say 苍白

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale苍cāng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale白bái2nd tone, rising

苍白 in a sentence

  1. 他病了，所以脸色显得苍白。

    Tā bìng le, suǒyǐ liǎnsè xiǎnde cāngbái.

    He’s ill, so he looks pale.

    Sentence #1361982 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你今天看上去很苍白。

    Nǐ jīntiān kàn shàngqu hěn cāngbái.

    You look pale today.

    Sentence #844116 from Tatoeba

  3. 他跟我说我很苍白，并问我怎么了。

    Tā gēn wǒ shuō wǒ hěn cāngbái, bìng wèn wǒ zěnme le.

    He told me I looked pale and asked what was wrong.

    Sentence #343927 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 苍白 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 苍 (cāng) with each of its parts in a different colour
苍cāngdark blue
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 仓granary · cāngSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 仓 (cāng) hints at the sound. Compare it with cāng.

The character 白 (bái) drawn as one shape
白báiwhite

白 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 苍白

苍 7 strokes · 白 5 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

苍白 (cāngbái) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 苍白 (cāngbái). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 苍白

Words with 白

白天báitiān · daytime白bái · white白色báisè · white明白míngbai · clear坦白tǎnbái · frank空白kòngbái · blank蛋白质dànbáizhì · protein

More words: Adjectives

薄弱bóruò · weak不可思议bùkěsīyì · unimaginable不像话búxiànghuà · unreasonable不相上下bùxiāngshàngxià · equally matched仓促cāngcù · hurried残酷cánkù · cruel灿烂cànlàn · brilliant残忍cánrěn · cruel

FAQs

苍白 (cāngbái) means “pale” or “pallid”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it cāngbái: cāng with a 1st tone, then bái with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 苍白 is written 蒼白. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cangbai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 苍白 from the suggestions. Typing cangbai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
苍白 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.