二十秒 (èr shí miǎo) — twenty seconds

Definition

noun

twenty seconds

Examples

二十秒。
Tā pǎo le èr shí miǎo.
He ran for twenty seconds.
二十秒。
Bǐ sài zhǐ yòng le èr shí miǎo jiù jié shù le.
The match ended in just twenty seconds.
二十秒。
Nǐ kě yǐ zài èr shí miǎo nèi wán chéng zhè ge dòng zuò.
You can complete this movement within twenty seconds.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

二 is drawn as two parallel strokes, where the number of strokes shows the amount.

Open 二 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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

禾少秒

Meaning part形符xíngfú

禾禾hécereal; grain

Sound part声符shēngfú

少

少shǎo秒miǎo

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 秒 pairs 禾, a cereal or grain plant, with 少 giving the sound.

Open 秒 →

Appears in