渺小 (miǎo xiǎo) — minute, tiny, insignificant | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

渺小 means 'insignificant, tiny in scale or importance' — the abstract, philosophical sense of 'small', unlike 小 which is physical size. Stronger than 微小, closer to 微不足道.

adjective

minutetinyinsignificant

Examples

，渺小。
Zài yǔ zhòu miàn qián, rén lèi xiǎn de fēi cháng miǎo xiǎo.
In front of the universe, humans appear very insignificant.
渺小。
Bú yào yīn wèi guò qù de shī bài ér jué de zì jǐ miǎo xiǎo.
Don't feel insignificant because of past failures.
，渺小。
Měi gè rén dōu yǒu zì jǐ de jià zhí, jí shǐ hěn miǎo xiǎo.
Everyone has their own value, even if it's minute.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

渺 and 小 both mean tiny, so together they stress how small something is.

Characters in this word

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

氵眇渺

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐ

Sound part声符shēngfú

眇

眇miǎo渺

Same sound today

渺 is built from 氵 (water) plus 眇, which gives the sound.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

八八bāto divide; to separate
丨丨gǔnsmall object

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Size & Dimension

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.