玄妙 (xuán miào) — mysterious, profound; abstruse, esoteric | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literary adjective for something so deep and obscure it feels mysterious. Far stronger and more formal than 奇妙 ('wonderful, magical'), which is the everyday word for "marvelous."

adjective

mysteriousprofoundabstruseesoteric

Examples

玄妙。
Zhè ge dào lǐ shí fēn xuán miào.
This principle is very profound.
玄妙，。
Tā de lǐ lùn hěn xuán miào, yì bān rén hěn nán lǐ jiě.
His theory is very abstruse, hard for ordinary people to understand.
玄妙。
Dào jiā sī xiǎng zhōng yǒu hěn duō xuán miào de gài niàn.
Daoist thought contains many mysterious concepts.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéSide by side

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

玄 “deep” and 妙 “subtle” are parallel qualities that mean mysterious.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 玄 represents a rope made of twisted strands, with a mark above it.

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

女少妙

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚwoman

Sound part声符shēngfú

少

少shǎo妙miào

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

妙 combines 女, a woman, with 少, which gives the sound.

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