三十秒 (sān shí miǎo) — thirty seconds

Definition

noun

thirty seconds

Examples

三十秒。
Bǐ sài hái shèng zuì hòu sān shí miǎo.
There are only thirty seconds left in the game.
三十秒。
Qǐng zài sān shí miǎo nèi wán chéng cè shì.
Please complete the test within thirty seconds.
三十秒。
Tā pǎo yì bǎi mǐ yòng le bú dào sān shí miǎo.
He ran a hundred meters in under thirty seconds.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

三 is drawn as three parallel strokes, like 一 with one stroke and 二 with two.

Open 三 →

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.

禾少秒

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