HSK 5 · Adjectives

次要 cìyào “secondary” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 次要 means

  1. secondary

How to say 次要

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale次cì4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale要yào4th tone, falling

次要 in a sentence

  1. 价格是次要的，质量最重要。

    Jiàgé shì cìyào de, zhìliàng zuì zhòngyào.

    Price is secondary; quality matters most.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 这些都是次要问题，先别管它们。

    Zhèxiē dōu shì cìyào wèntí, xiān bié guǎn tāmen.

    These are all minor issues, so leave them for now.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 次要 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 次 (cì) with each of its parts in a different colour
次cìnext in sequence
  • 冫ice · bīng
  • 欠yawn · qiàn
The character 要 (yào) with each of its parts in a different colour
要yàoto want; to need; to ask for
  • 覀cover form of 襾 · yà
  • 女woman · nǚ

Memory aidOnce drawn as a person with hands on the waist, its first meaning. That meaning moved to 腰 (yāo), and 要 became “to want”.

How to write 次要

次 6 strokes · 要 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

次要 (cìyào) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 次要 (cìyào). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 次要

Words with 次

次cì · times其次qícì · next再次zàicì · once again次序cìxù · order屡次lǚcì · repeatedly次品cìpǐn · defective product层次céngcì · level档次dàngcì · grade名次míngcì · ranking

Words with 要

不要bùyào · don’t!要yào · want快要kuàiyào · about to需要xūyào · to need要求yāoqiú · to request重要zhòngyào · important主要zhǔyào · main就要jiùyào · about to要是yàoshi · if只要zhǐyào · if only

More words: Adjectives

丑chǒu · ugly臭chòu · smelly出色chūsè · remarkable初级chūjí · elementary匆忙cōngmáng · hasty粗糙cūcāo · rough大方dàfang · generous大型dàxíng · large

FAQs

次要 (cìyào) means “secondary”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it cìyào: cì with a 4th tone, then yào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 次要 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ciyao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 次要 from the suggestions. Typing ciyao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
次要 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.