妙 means “exquisite, strange, subtle”
みょう · myou
Also: queer, mystery
- Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
- たえ
- On'yomi (Chinese reading)
- ミョウ, ビョウ
JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes
The story
A woman (女) and a little (少): picture something small and delicate that is hard to put into words. 妙 is both exquisite and strange: 絶妙 is perfectly judged, 奇妙 weird, and 微妙, subtle, is how Japanese say something is just 'meh'.
Used in 微妙 (bimyou, subtle; iffy), 奇妙 (kimyou, strange), and 絶妙 (zetsumyou, exquisite)
More from Grace & Beauty
- 柄 pattern
- 趣 taste
- 雅 elegance
- 飾 decorate
- 魅 charm
- 粧 makeup
- 佳 fine
- 麗 beautiful
- 粋 chic
- 醜 ugly
- 艶 luster
- 貌 appearance
Learn 妙 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji
Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.