缥缈 (piāo miǎo) — ethereal, misty, fleeting (literary, variant of 飘渺)
Definition
Literary word describing something faint, misty, and hard to grasp — like clouds, sound, or memories fading away. Used in poetry and prose; in everyday speech prefer 模糊 or 不清楚.
adjective
etherealmistyfleeting (literary, variant of 飘渺)
Examples
- 缥缈，。Shān jiān yún wù piāo miǎo, wǎn rú xiān jìng.The mist among the mountains was ethereal, like a fairyland.
- 缥缈。Nà piāo miǎo de gē shēng jiàn jiàn xiāo shī zài yè sè lǐ.That ethereal singing gradually faded into the night.
- ，缥缈。Huí yì wǎng shì, zhǒng zhǒng dōu biàn de piāo miǎo ér bù zhēn shí.Recalling the past, everything becomes misty and unreal.
Origin
Single-morpheme word构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair
Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.
缥piǎo
缈miǎo
The characters 缥 and 缈 carry no separate meaning here; together they spell an ethereal, misty quality.
Sound-only characters
Appears in
Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.