Meaning of 巧妙
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- ingenious; clever
- ingenuity; artifice
How to use 巧妙
巧妙 describes methods, designs, ideas, or answers that solve a problem in a smart, elegant way. It often appears before 地 as an adverb or after 很. Example: 他巧妙地回答了这个问题。(Tā qiǎomiào de huídá le zhège wèntí.) He answered the question cleverly.
巧 (qiǎo) means skillful, as in 技巧 (jìqiǎo) skill, and 妙 (miào) means wonderful, as in 美妙 (měimiào). Put them together and a 巧妙 idea is skillful in a wonderful way: clever and neat.
Common mistake: Learners often use 巧妙 for people, as in 他很巧妙, when they mean 他很聪明 (cōngming). 巧妙 usually describes a method, plan, or design rather than a person's intelligence. Also do not confuse it with 奇妙 (qímiào), which means marvelous or mysterious, not clever.
巧妙 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.
巧 qiǎo · opportunely · 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
妙 miào · clever · 7 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Related words
Words that share a character with 巧妙.
| 巧克力 | qiǎokèlì | (loanword) chocolate |
| 技巧 | jìqiǎo | skill; technique |
| 奇妙 | qímiào | wonderful; marvelous; intriguing; mysterious; strange |
| 美妙 | měimiào | beautiful; wonderful |
| 巧合 | qiǎohé | coincidence; coincidental |
| 碰巧 | pèngqiǎo | by chance; by coincidence |
| 莫名其妙 | mòmíngqímiào | (idiom) baffling; bizarre; without rhyme or reason; inexplicable |
| 微妙 | wēimiào | subtle |
| 凑巧 | còuqiǎo | fortuitously; luckily |
| 恰巧 | qiàqiǎo | by chance; as chance would have it |
| 灵巧 | língqiǎo | deft; nimble |
| 精妙 | jīngmiào | exquisite; fine and delicate (usu. of works of art) |
Questions about 巧妙
What does 巧妙 mean?
巧妙 (qiǎomiào) means "ingenious; clever; ingenuity; artifice" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 巧妙?
巧妙 is made of 2 characters: 巧 (5 strokes), 妙 (7 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 巧妙 an HSK word?
Yes. 巧妙 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 巧妙 have a negative meaning like 'tricky' or 'sly'?
Usually no. 巧妙 is generally positive and praises cleverness. The sense of artifice appears mainly in contexts like hiding something cleverly, for example 巧妙地隐藏 (qiǎomiào de yǐncáng), and even then it focuses on skill rather than dishonesty.
What is the difference between 巧妙 and 巧合?
Both start with 巧, but 巧合 (qiǎohé) means coincidence, and that 巧 carries the idea of happening by chance, as in 碰巧 (pèngqiǎo). 巧妙 is about skill and cleverness, not luck.