秒 (miǎo): second (unit of time), arc second (angular measurement unit), (coll.) instantly
秒 (miǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “second (unit of time).” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 禾 (semantic) and 少 (phonetic). It ranks #1998 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 秒 grain. Its radical form 禾 (grain) appears in many related characters such as 秋 (qiū, autumn), 科 (kē, branch of study), 租 (zū, to hire).
Definitions
- second (unit of time)
- arc second (angular measurement unit)
- (coll.) instantly
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 秒 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 秒表noun | miǎo biǎo | stopwatch |
| 争分夺秒phrase | zhēng fēn duó miǎo | lit. fight minutes, snatch seconds (idiom) |
| 分秒必争phrase | fēn miǎo bì zhēng | seize every minute and second (idiom) |
| 秒钟noun | miǎo zhōng | (time) second |
| 毫秒noun | háo miǎo | millisecond, ms |
| 秒针noun | miǎo zhēn | second hand (of a clock) |
| 微秒noun | wēi miǎo | microsecond, µs, 10^-6 s |
| 每分每秒 | měi fēn měi miǎo | each and every moment |
| 秒看 | miǎo kàn | (coll.) to take in at a glance |
| 秒回verb | miǎo huí | (neologism) (slang) to respond to a message within seconds |
| 数秒verb | shǔ miǎo | to count the number of seconds (between two events) |
| 角秒符号 | jiǎo miǎo fú hào | double prime symbol (″) (math., linguistics etc) |
| 飞秒noun | fēi miǎo | femtosecond, fs, 10^-15 s |
| 秒杀verb | miǎo shā | (Internet) flash sale |
| 阿秒 | ā miǎo | (physics) attosecond (10⁻¹⁸ s) |
秒 appears in 25 compound words: 40 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 12 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 秒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (2)
Example Sentences
我在字典里查到了秒字的详细解释。
wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le miǎo zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .
I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "秒" in the dictionary.
... “2026台日棒球国际交流赛”赛后舞台秒变个人演唱会
. . . 2 0 2 6 tái rì bàng qiú guó jì jiāo liú sài sài hòu wǔ tái miǎo biàn gè rén yǎn chàng huì
... The stage of the "2026 Taiwan-Japan Baseball International Exchange Tournament" turned into a personal concert in seconds
刮刮乐“夹心玄学”秒中万元!网友朝圣 员工揭内幕:别买整本
guā guā lè jiā xīn xuán xué miǎo zhōng wàn yuán ! wǎng yǒu cháo shèng yuán gōng jiē nèi mù : bié mǎi zhěng běn
Scratch card "sandwich metaphysics" won 10,000 yuan in seconds! Netizens pilgrimage employees reveal the inside story: Don't buy the whole book
林志杰谈家人泪崩30秒!黄金世代队友齐聚 揭“野兽”私下真面目
lín zhì jié tán jiā rén lèi bēng 3 0 miǎo ! huáng jīn shì dài duì yǒu qí jù jiē yě shòu sī xià zhēn miàn mù
Lin Zhijie talked about his family and burst into tears for 30 seconds! Golden Generation teammates gathered to reveal the true face of the "Beast" in private
把甩炮当糖果!母亲才转身几秒 广东女童“口中冒火烟”爆哭
bǎ shuǎi pào dāng táng guǒ ! mǔ qīn cái zhuǎn shēn jī miǎo guǎng dōng nǚ tóng kǒu zhōng mào huǒ yān bào kū
Throw the cannon as candy! The mother turned around for a few seconds, and the Guangdong girl burst into tears with "fire and smoke coming out of her mouth"
“新春走基层”国外游客称赞贵州“秒通关”
xīn chūn zǒu jī céng guó wài yóu kè chèn zàn guì zhōu miǎo tōng guān
"New Year at the grassroots level" foreign tourists praise Guizhou for "customs clearance in seconds"
"每秒六便士" 鲍勃提醒她。
"Měi miǎo liù biànshì" Bàobó tíxǐng tā.
"Six pence per second," Bob reminds her.
光一秒钟能够环绕地球七圈半。
Guāng yī miǎozhōng nénggòu huánrào dìqiú qī quān bàn.
Light travels around the earth seven and a half times a second.
六十分钟为一小时，一分钟由六十秒组成。
Liùshí fēnzhōng wèi yī xiǎoshí, yī fēnzhōng yóu liùshí miǎo zǔchéng.
Sixty minutes make an hour, and a minute is made up of sixty seconds.
这则讯息将在五秒后自动销毁。
Zhè zé xùnxí jiāng zài wǔ miǎo hòu zìdòng xiāohuǐ.
This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 禾 (grain) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 秒 (miǎo) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 秒 and 省?
How many strokes does 秒 have?
What is the radical of 秒?
What are the components of 秒?
What are common words containing 秒?
What characters sound the same as 秒 (miǎo)?
Is 秒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 秒 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.