Chinese word

秒钟

Pronunciation

Pinyinmiǎo zhōng

Meaning

  • nounsecond

Example

你只需要三十秒钟来完成。nǐ zhǐ xū yào sān shí miǎo zhōng lái wán chéng

You only need thirty seconds to finish.

Illustration for 秒钟 (second)

More examples

请在几秒钟内回答。qǐng zài jí miǎo zhōng nèi huí dá

Please answer within a few seconds.

Core concept

A very short stretch of time marked out by a clock.

Common phrases

  • 几秒钟jí miǎo zhōng

    a few seconds

  • 一秒钟yì miǎo zhōng

    one second

  • 秒钟内miǎo zhōng nèi

    within seconds

Similar words

秒miǎo: A standard time unit equal to one second, often used in compact time expressions.
分钟fēn zhōng: A unit of time equal to sixty seconds, used to measure short periods.
小时xiǎo shí: A unit of time equal to sixty minutes, used to measure longer periods.
瞬间shùn jiān: A single, fleeting moment of extremely short duration.

Definition in Chinese

表示时间的单位，等于一秒，用来说明动作或过程持续的极短时间，常用于口语和书面表达中。biǎo shì shí jiān de dān wèi děng yú yì miǎo yòng lái shuō míng dòng zuò huò guò chéng chí xù de jí duǎn shí jiān cháng yòng yú kóu yǔ hé shū miàn biǎo dá zhōng

Word origin

秒 (miǎo, "tiny time unit") + 钟 (zhōng, "clock") combines the time-unit character with a clock-related character to name a clock-measured interval.

Usage tips

  • When a duration is expressed with a number, Chinese places the number directly before this noun rather than inserting a classifier, which keeps short time amounts compact.

Related words

Word lists with this word