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五秒 (wǔ miǎo) — five seconds

Definition

noun
five seconds

Examples

  • 五秒。
    Tā yòng le bú dào wǔ miǎo jiù jiě jué le nà ge wèn tí.
    He solved that problem in less than five seconds.
  • 五秒。
    Guǎng gào zhǐ yǒu wǔ miǎo cháng.
    The advertisement is only five seconds long.
  • 五秒。
    Bǐ sài hái yǒu wǔ miǎo jiù yào jié shù le.
    The match will end in five seconds.

Origin

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
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
Frequency & Duration

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