HSK 5 · Adjectives

巧妙 qiǎomiào “ingenious” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 巧妙 means

  1. ingenious
  2. clever
  3. skilful
  4. ingenuity
  5. artifice

How to say 巧妙

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale巧qiǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale妙miào4th tone, falling

巧妙 in a sentence

  1. 好巧妙啊。

    Hǎo qiǎomiào a.

    How clever!

    Sentence #805579 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 戏法人人会变，各有巧妙不同。

    Xìfǎ rénrén huì biàn, gè yǒu qiǎomiào bùtóng.

    Anyone can do magic tricks, but each person has their own clever touch.

    Sentence #917819 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 巧妙 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 巧 (qiǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
巧qiǎoopportunely
  • 工work · gōngMeaning part
  • 丂part of the characterSound part
The character 妙 (miào) with each of its parts in a different colour
妙miàoclever
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 少few · shǎoSound part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 少 (shǎo) hints at the sound. Compare it with miào.

How to write 巧妙

巧 5 strokes · 妙 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 巧妙

Words with 巧

巧克力qiǎokèlì · chocolate (loanword)技巧jìqiǎo · skill恰巧qiàqiǎo · by chance

Words with 妙

美妙měimiào · wonderful奇妙qímiào · wonderful莫名其妙mòmíngqímiào · baffling

More words: Adjectives

迫切pòqiè · urgent谦虚qiānxū · modest浅qiǎn · shallow强烈qiángliè · strong亲爱qīn'ài · dear亲切qīnqiè · amiable勤奋qínfèn · hardworking青qīng · green

FAQs

巧妙 (qiǎomiào) means “ingenious” or “clever”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it qiǎomiào: qiǎo with a 3rd tone, then miào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 巧妙 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qiaomiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 巧妙 from the suggestions. Typing qiaomiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
巧妙 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.