miǎo

Traditional: 秒

#1437 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

second (unit of time)

Word origin

A phono-semantic compound with 禾 (hé, grain) as the semantic element and 少 (shǎo, few, small) suggesting smallness, originally meaning the awn of grain and later borrowed for the smallest common unit of time.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
禾 (hé, grain) + 少 (shǎo, few)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 秒

Examples

Please wait thirty seconds for me.

bǎi

He ran a hundred metres in only eleven seconds.

There are ten seconds left until midnight.

This action lasted only a few seconds.

liù

There are sixty seconds in one minute.

秒 (miǎo) is the measure word for a second of time. It pairs with numbers directly, as in 三十秒 (thirty seconds), and is the smallest everyday unit alongside 分 (minute) and 小时 (hour).

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 29.