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萧条 (xiāo tiáo) — (of a place or atmosphere) bleak, desolate; (economics) depressed, sluggish, in a slump

Definition

Covers both physical bleakness (a place, a scene) and economic slump. For the economic sense, 不景气 and 低迷 are the closer terms; 萧条 emphasizes a deeper, longer downturn.

adjective
(of a place or atmosphere) bleakdesolate(economics) depressedsluggishin a slump

Examples

  • 萧条，。
    Jīng jì xiāo tiáo shí qī, hěn duō gōng chǎng dōu dǎo bì le.
    During the economic depression, many factories went bankrupt.
  • 萧条。
    Zhè zuò xiǎo chéng dào le dōng tiān jǐng xiàng shí fēn xiāo tiáo.
    This small town's scenery becomes very bleak in winter.
  • 萧条。
    Zhèng fǔ chū tái zhèng cè yìng duì xiāo tiáo de shì chǎng huán jìng.
    The government introduced policies to deal with the sluggish market environment.

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.

萧xiāo
条tiáo

The bleak sense is carried by 萧条 as a whole; 萧 and 条 do not have separate meanings here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 萧 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 條; 条 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
木木mù
Sound part声符shēngfú
攸
攸yōu條tiáo
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 條 pairs 木, a small branch or stick, with 攸, which shows a person warned by a hand holding a stick, as a sound part; 条 is a later shortened shape.

Open 条 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Economy & Trade

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