秒 (miǎo) · second (unit of time), arc second (unit of angle)

Meanings

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

Characters

秒

miǎo

second (unit of time)

Examples

HSK 3

他跑一百米只用了十一秒。

Tā pǎo yìbǎi mǐ zhǐyòng le shíyī miǎo.

He ran 100 meters in just 11 seconds.

HSK 4

这道菜秒光了。

Zhè dào cài miǎo guāng le.

This dish sold out in seconds.

HSK 7-9

倒计时还剩三十秒。

Dàojìshí hái shèng sānshímiǎo.

There are 30 seconds left on the countdown.

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.