秒 (miǎo): second (unit of time)

Meanings

1 second (unit of time)
2 arc second (unit of angle)

Characters

秒

miǎo

second (unit of time)

Examples

请等我几秒钟。

Qǐng děng wǒ jǐ miǎozhōng.

Please wait a few seconds.

他跑一百米只用了十一秒。

Tā pǎo yībǎi mǐ zhǐyòng le shíyī miǎo.

He ran 100 meters in just 11 seconds.

倒计时还剩三十秒。

Dàojìshí hái shèng sānshímiǎo.

There are 30 seconds left on the countdown.

这道菜秒光了。

Zhè dào cài miǎo guāng le.

This dish sold out in seconds.

Tips

usage

秒 is also used as internet slang meaning "instantly": 秒杀 = "instant kill" / sell out instantly; 秒回 = reply instantly; 秒懂 = understand immediately.

usage

Time units: 秒 (second), 分钟 (minute), 小时 (hour).

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; standing rice plant

Left-side 禾 depicts a stalk of grain bending under its ripe head - the indexing radical. It originally meant the slender awn at the tip of a grain head, the tiniest part of the plant. That "minute thing" sense yielded modern "second" (smallest time unit). Family: 和, 私, 秋.

phonetic

少 shǎo

few; small amount

Right-side 少 supplies the sound (shǎo to miǎo, with onset shift) and adds a strong semantic tilt - "a tiny grain-tip" fits perfectly with 少 "few/small". Same phonetic appears in 妙 (miào, wonderful), 沙 (shā, sand), 砂 - all keeping a related shǎ/miǎo reading and the "small thing" meaning.