HSK 4 · Time

秒 miǎo “second (of time)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 秒 means

  1. second (of time)
  2. second (unit of time)
  3. arc second (angular measurement unit)
  4. (coll.) instantly

How to say 秒

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale秒miǎo3rd tone, dipping

秒 in a sentence

  1. 一分钟有六十秒。

    Yì fēnzhōng yǒu liùshí miǎo.

    There are sixty seconds in a minute.

    Sentence #380602 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 光一秒钟能够环绕地球七圈半。

    Guāng yì miǎozhōng nénggòu huánrào dìqiú qī quān bàn.

    Light can travel around the earth seven and a half times in one second.

    Sentence #617686 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 分秒必争。

    Fēnmiǎo bì zhēng.

    Every second counts.

    Sentence #3662923 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 秒 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 秒 (miǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
秒miǎosecond
  • 禾grain · héMeaning part
  • 少few · shǎoSound part

禾 hints at the meaning (grain); 少 (shǎo) hints at the sound. Compare it with miǎo.

How to write 秒

秒 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 秒

More words: Time

寒假hánjià · winter holidays将来jiānglái · in the future节jié · festival礼拜天Lǐbàitiān · Sunday偶尔ǒu'ěr · occasionally平时píngshí · ordinarily世纪shìjì · century同时tóngshí · at the same time

FAQs

秒 (miǎo) means “second (of time)” or “second (unit of time)”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it miǎo: miǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 秒 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type miao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 秒 from the suggestions. Typing miao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
秒 is an HSK 4 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.