HSK 5 · Adjectives

明显 míngxiǎn “clear” in Chinese

Traditional 明顯

What 明显 means

  1. clear
  2. distinct
  3. obvious

How to say 明显

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale明míng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale显xiǎn3rd tone, dipping

明显 in a sentence

  1. 我妹妹的英语有了明显的进步。

    Wǒ mèimei de Yīngyǔ yǒu le míngxiǎn de jìnbù.

    My sister has made remarkable progress in English.

    Sentence #791512 from Tatoeba

  2. 他明显撒谎了。

    Tā míngxiǎn sāhuǎng le.

    He clearly lied.

    Sentence #8930206 from Tatoeba

  3. 好像很明显。

    Hǎoxiàng hěn míngxiǎn.

    It seems pretty obvious.

    Sentence #8853892 from Tatoeba

How 明显 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 明 (míng) with each of its parts in a different colour
明míngbright
  • 日sun · rì
  • 月moon · yuè

Memory aidThe light of the sun 日 and the moon 月 together: bright.

The character 显 (xiǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
显xiǎnto make visible
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part
  • 业business · yèSound part

日 hints at the meaning (sun); 业 (yè) hints at the sound. Compare it with xiǎn.

How to write 明显

明 8 strokes · 显 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 明显

Words with 明

明天míngtiān · tomorrow明年míngnián · next year明白míngbai · clear聪明cōngming · intelligent说明shuōmíng · to explain证明zhèngmíng · proof明确míngquè · clear表明biǎomíng · to make clear发明fāmíng · to invent光明guāngmíng · bright

Words with 显

显得xiǎnde · to seem显示xiǎnshì · to show显然xiǎnrán · clearly显著xiǎnzhù · notable

More words: Adjectives

良好liánghǎo · good灵活línghuó · flexible密切mìqiè · close苗条miáotiao · (of a woman) slim模糊móhu · vague陌生mòshēng · strange嫩nèn · young and tender能干nénggàn · capable

FAQs

明显 (míngxiǎn) means “clear” or “distinct”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it míngxiǎn: míng with a 2nd tone, then xiǎn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 明显 is written 明顯. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mingxian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 明显 from the suggestions. Typing mingxian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
明显 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.