荒无人烟

荒無人煙

huāngwú-rényān

idiom #26,493

Meanings

1 desolate and uninhabited
2 barren and without signs of human life
3 a wilderness with no trace of people

Characters

desolate; barren; wasteland

without; lacking; none

smoke; (here) signs of human habitation

Examples

HSK 6

地震后，整个村庄变得荒无人烟。

Dìzhèn hòu, zhěnggè cūnzhuāng biàn de huāngwúrényān.

After the earthquake, the entire village became desolate and deserted.

HSK 7-9

他们穿越了一片荒无人烟的沙漠。

Tāmen chuānyuè le yīpiàn huāngwúrényān de shāmò.

They crossed a desolate, uninhabited desert.

HSK 7-9

这个小岛荒无人烟，连一栋房子都没有。

Zhège xiǎodǎo huāngwúrényān, lián yī dòng fángzi dōu méiyǒu.

This small island is completely uninhabited - not even a single house.

Tips

memory

人烟 literally means 'human smoke' - the smoke from cooking fires that signals people live nearby. A place that is 荒无人烟 is so desolate there is not even cooking smoke in sight.

Stroke Order

荒 huāng

无 wú

人 rén

烟 yān