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

(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 (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2728 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵眇 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
miǎo xiǎominute
miǎo mánguncertain
piāo miǎofaintly discernible
miǎo wú rén yānremote and uninhabited (idiom)
hào miǎovast
miǎo wú yīn xìnto receive no news whatsoever about sb
miǎo hū qí wēiremote and insignificant (idiom)
线jǐn còu miǎo zǐ xiàn quānCompact Muon Solenoid (CMS)
miǎo zǐmuon (particle physics)
qián tú miǎo mángnot knowing what to do next
miǎo yuǎndistant
miǎo shìto think little of
piāo miǎovariant of 飄渺|飘渺[piao1 miao3]
yǎo miǎodimly discernible
miǎo miǎo máng mánguncertain
16
Total compounds
56
As first character
31
As last character
13
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

máng
0.7452,190 co-occurrences
piāo
0.533246 co-occurrences
wěi
0.418222 co-occurrences
wàng
0.395678 co-occurrences
xiǎo
0.3913,000 co-occurrences
hào
0.371210 co-occurrences
0.359528 co-occurrences
yān
0.34772 co-occurrences
yīn
0.33748 co-occurrences
guō
0.334132 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

miǎo miǎo máng mángHSK 7+

uncertain; unknown; fuzzy

phrase
miǎowúrényānHSK 7+

to be deserted; to be desolate; to be uninhabited

phrase
miǎo wú yīn xìnHSK 7+

to receive no news whatsoever about sb

phrase
qián tú miǎo mángHSK 7+

not knowing what to do next; at a loose end

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

暴雨过后,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.

Tatoeba

眼前的景色让齐里感到自身的小。

Yǎnqián de jǐngsè ràng qí lǐ gǎndào zìshēn de miǎoxiǎo.

Ziri felt humbled by such a scenery.

Character Family

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: 苗 (Hmong or Miao ethnic group of southwest China), 描 (to depict), 瞄 (to take aim), 秒 (second (unit of time)), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.