六十秒 (liù shí miǎo) — sixty seconds

Definition

noun
sixty seconds

Examples

  • 六十秒。
    Wǒ zhī xū yào liù shí miǎo jiù néng zuò wán.
    I only need sixty seconds to finish.
  • 六十秒。
    Bǐ sài hái yǒu liù shí miǎo jiù yào jié shù le.
    The competition will end in sixty seconds.
  • 六十秒。
    Tā yòng liù shí miǎo pǎo wán le yì bǎi mǐ.
    He ran one hundred meters in sixty seconds.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 六 may come from a simple drawing of a shed, or from an ancient counting mark.

Open 六 →

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.

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 →

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