深奥

深奧
shēnào
adjective HSK 7 #16,832

Meanings

  1. 1 profound
  2. 2 abstruse
  3. 3 difficult to understand

Characters

Both characters convey depth — together they describe something intellectually deep and hard to grasp

Examples

Zhè piān lùnwén de nèiróng tài shēnào le.
The content of this paper is too abstruse.
Tā yòng jiǎndān de yǔyán jiěshì le shēnào de dàolǐ.
He explained profound truths in simple language.

Tips

usage
深奥 describes abstract, intellectual difficulty — philosophy, science, theory. Don't use it for physically difficult tasks. Compare with 深刻 (shēnkè, 'profound/deep') which describes impact or insight rather than difficulty.

Stroke Order

shēn
ào