遥远

• Pinyin: yáo yuǎn
• Hanzi breakdown: 遥 = 辶 (movement/path) + 䍃 (far away); 远 = 辶 (movement) + 袁 (long robe — suggesting a long journey)

Meaning

Distant; far away. Describes great physical distance or a remote point in time.

Used for geographical remoteness (遥远的村庄), temporal distance (遥远的过去/未来), and emotional or psychological distance. Common in literary and narrative contexts. Often carries a wistful or nostalgic tone.

Examples

1. 她凝望着窗外那片遥远的山脉，心里涌起一股难以名状的乡愁，仿佛故乡就在山的那一边。 She gazed at the distant mountain range outside the window, and an indescribable homesickness welled up in her, as if her hometown were just on the other side of those mountains.
2. 人类对遥远星系的探索才刚刚起步，宇宙之大远超我们目前的认知和想象。 Human exploration of distant galaxies has only just begun; the universe is far greater than what we can currently understand or imagine.
3. 那段遥远的童年记忆已经模糊，但外祖母院子里的那棵老槐树却始终清晰地留在他脑海中。 Those far-off childhood memories have grown blurry, but the old pagoda tree in his grandmother’s yard has always remained vividly fixed in his mind.

Usage Guide

Context: literature, geography, emotion, history

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 尽管两人相隔遥远，他们仍坚持每天通话，用声音弥补身体上无法跨越的距离，维系着这段跨越大洋的感情。(Although the two were separated by a great distance, they still persisted in calling each other every day, using their voices to bridge the physical gap and sustain this relationship spanning an ocean.)
• 考古学家在这片遥远的高原腹地发现了一处距今逾三千年的聚落遗址，为研究早期人类在极端地理条件下的生存方式提供了珍贵的实物依据。(Archaeologists discovered a settlement ruin dating back over three thousand years in the remote interior of this plateau, providing invaluable physical evidence for studying how early humans survived under extreme geographical conditions.)

Don't Say

• 这个问题很遥远 — 遥远 describes spatial or temporal distance, not abstract difficulty; for a far-fetched goal say 这个目标还很遥远 only when the goal is genuinely far off; applying 遥远 to abstract problems without a time or distance frame sounds unnatural

Origin & History

遥 (far, distant — 辶 movement + 䍃 distant) + 远 (far — 辶 movement + 袁 long robe; going a long way)

Cultural Context

Era: Classical/Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal