Meaning & readings
exquisite, strange, queer, mystery, miracle, excellent, delicate, charming
On’yomi ミョウ、ビョウ
Kun’yomi たえ
Origin
The character 妙 combines "woman" (女) on the left with "few" or "small" (少) on the right. In classical Chinese, the idea of something small or subtle, especially when paired with the feminine principle, came to suggest qualities that are delicate, refined, and mysteriously wonderful — things that are excellent precisely because they are rare or hard to grasp. Over time, this blend of meanings evolved to cover everything from exquisite beauty to strange and miraculous things, all connected to that sense of something subtle and exceptional.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 38
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1122 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05999