Meaning of 妙
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- clever
- wonderful
- variant of 妙[miao4]
How to use 妙
妙 often appears on its own as a comment meaning "brilliant" or "wonderful," and it is common in words like 巧妙 (qiǎomiào, ingenious) and 美妙 (měimiào, beautiful). Example: 这个主意真妙。(Zhège zhǔyi zhēn miào.) This idea is really clever.
妙 is made of 女 (nǚ, woman) and 少 (shào, young). Picture a young woman who is clever and wonderful, and you have 妙 (miào).
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the right side as 小 (xiǎo) instead of 少 (shǎo/shào). The right side has the extra slanting stroke at the bottom. Also keep the fourth tone: miào, not miáo like 苗 (miáo, sprout).
妙 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
妙 miào · clever · 7 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 妙.
| 奇妙 | qímiào | wonderful; marvelous; intriguing; mysterious; strange |
| 巧妙 | qiǎomiào | ingenious; clever; ingenuity; artifice |
| 美妙 | měimiào | beautiful; wonderful |
| 莫名其妙 | mòmíngqímiào | (idiom) baffling; bizarre; without rhyme or reason; inexplicable |
| 微妙 | wēimiào | subtle |
| 精妙 | jīngmiào | exquisite; fine and delicate (usu. of works of art) |
| 不妙 | bùmiào | (of a turn of events) not too encouraging; far from good |
| 绝妙 | juémiào | exquisite |
| 妙不可言 | miàobùkěyán | too wonderful for words |
| 妙计 | miàojì | excellent plan; brilliant scheme |
Questions about 妙
What does 妙 mean?
妙 (miào) means "clever; wonderful" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 妙?
妙 is made of 1 character: 妙 (7 strokes). That is 7 strokes in total.
Is 妙 an HSK word?
Yes. 妙 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does 不妙 (bú miào) mean?
不妙 means "not good" or "looks bad," used when a situation is turning worse. For example, 情况不妙 (qíngkuàng bú miào) means "the situation doesn't look good."
Why does 莫名其妙 mean confusing if 妙 means wonderful?
In this idiom 妙 refers to the subtle reason or secret behind something. 莫名其妙 literally means no one can name its subtlety, so it describes something baffling or without reason.