渺 (miǎo): (of an expanse of water) vast, distant and indistinct, tiny or insignificant

渺 (miǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “(of an expanse of water) vast.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 眇 (phonetic). It ranks #2728 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 渺 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (of an expanse of water) vast
  2. distant and indistinct
  3. tiny or insignificant

Etymology & Origin

渺

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵眇 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing 渺 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
渺小adjectivemiǎo xiǎominute
渺茫adjectivemiǎo mánguncertain
飘渺adjectivepiāo miǎofaintly discernible
渺无人烟phrasemiǎo wú rén yānremote and uninhabited (idiom)
浩渺adjectivehào miǎovast
渺无音信miǎo wú yīn xìnto receive no news whatsoever about sb
渺乎其微miǎo hū qí wēiremote and insignificant (idiom)
紧凑渺子线圈jǐn còu miǎo zǐ xiàn quānCompact Muon Solenoid (CMS)
渺子nounmiǎo zǐmuon (particle physics)
前途渺茫qián tú miǎo mángnot knowing what to do next
渺远miǎo yuǎndistant
渺视verbmiǎo shìto think little of
缥渺piāo miǎovariant of 飄渺|飘渺
杳渺yǎo miǎodimly discernible
渺渺茫茫miǎo miǎo máng mánguncertain
16
Total compounds
56
As first character
31
As last character
13
As middle character

渺 appears in 16 compound words: 56 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 13 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 渺 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

茫máng
0.734730 co-occurrences
飘piāo
0.52582 co-occurrences
伟wěi
0.41274 co-occurrences
望wàng
0.389226 co-occurrences
浩hào
0.36670 co-occurrences
小xiǎo
0.3591,005 co-occurrences
希xī
0.354176 co-occurrences
烟yān
0.34224 co-occurrences
殷yīn
0.33216 co-occurrences
郭guō
0.32944 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

渺渺茫茫miǎo miǎo máng mángHSK 7+

uncertain; unknown; fuzzy

phrase
渺无人烟miǎowúrényānHSK 7+

to be deserted; to be desolate; to be uninhabited

phrase
渺无音信miǎo wú yīn xìnHSK 7+

to receive no news whatsoever about sb

phrase
前途渺茫qián tú miǎo mángHSK 7+

not knowing what to do next; at a loose end

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

暴雨过后,渺水上涨,淹没了低洼的街道。

bào yǔ guò hòu , miǎo shuǐ shǎng zhǎng , yān méi le dī 洼 de jiē dào .

After the downpour, the river swelled, flooding the low-lying streets.

奇客SolidotSep 2026

而且由于安德鲁斯的血型较为罕见,他获得匹配的人类肾脏的几率尤其渺茫。

ér qiě yóu yú ān dé lǔ sī de xiě xíng jiào wéi hǎn jiàn , tā huò dé pǐ pèi de rén lèi shèn zāng de jī lǜ yóu qí miǎo máng .

Moreover, because Andrews has a relatively rare blood type, his chances of finding a compatible human kidney are particularly slim.

少数派Aug 2026

当一座巨大的神山出现在人类的面前,会切实感受到人类的渺小和自然的浩瀚。

dāng yī zuò jù dà de shén shān chū xiàn zài rén lèi de miàn qián , huì qiē shí gǎn shòu dào rén lèi de miǎo xiǎo hé zì rán de hào hàn .

When a majestic sacred mountain appears before us, we truly feel the insignificance of humanity and the vastness of nature.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

在大西洋的惊涛骇浪中,这个岛国或许渺小,但它的足球故事却拥有震撼人心的力量。

zài dà xī yáng de jīng tāo hài làng zhōng , zhè gè dǎo guó huò xǔ miǎo xiǎo , dàn tā de zú qiú gù shì què yōng yǒu zhèn hàn rén xīn de lì liàng .

Amid the raging waves of the Atlantic, this island nation may seem small, but its soccer story has a truly moving power.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

命运面前,人总是渺小的。

mìng yùn miàn qián , rén zǒng shì miǎo xiǎo de .

In the face of fate, people are always insignificant.

Tatoeba

眼前的景色让齐里感到自身的渺小。

Yǎnqián de jǐngsè ràng qí lǐ gǎndào zìshēn de miǎoxiǎo.

Ziri felt humbled by such a scenery.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced miǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 渺 (miǎo) mean in Chinese?
渺 (miǎo) primarily means "(of an expanse of water) vast." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2728 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 渺 have?
渺 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 渺?
The radical associated with 渺 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 渺?
渺 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 眇 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵眇 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 渺?
Common words with 渺 include: 渺小 (miǎo xiǎo, "minute"); 渺茫 (miǎo máng, "uncertain"); 飘渺 (piāo miǎo, "faintly discernible"); 渺无人烟 (miǎo wú rén yān, "remote and uninhabited (idiom)"); 浩渺 (hào miǎo, "vast"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 渺 (miǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation miǎo: 妙 (wonderful), 描 (to depict), 秒 (second (unit of time)), 苗 (Hmong or Miao ethnic group of southwest China), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 渺 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 渺 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 渺 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.