Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Missing without a trace: Describes a person or thing that has disappeared completely, leaving no clues or information about their whereabouts or fate.
   • Vanished: Indicates a state of having gone away and being untraceable.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Người đàn ông đó đã biệt tích sau trận bão. (That man went missing without a trace after the storm.)
  • Chiếc máy bay biệt tích trên biển Thái Bình Dương. (The airplane vanished over the Pacific Ocean.)
  • Anh ấy biệt tích đã mười năm nay. (He has been missing without a trace for ten years now.)

Advanced Usage

• "mất tích biệt tích": This is a common collocation where "mất tích" (to be missing) is intensified by "biệt tích" to emphasize the complete absence of traces.
  • Nhà thám hiểm mất tích biệt tích trong rừng Amazon. (The explorer disappeared without a trace in the Amazon rainforest.)

Variants and Related Words

• Biệt tăm (adj, informal): A more colloquial synonym meaning to vanish, to disappear off the face of the earth.
  • Hắn ta biệt tăm từ hôm qua. (He vanished off the face of the earth since yesterday.)
• Mất tích (adj/verb): To be missing, to disappear. This is a more general term, while "biệt tích" implies a more complete, trace-less disappearance.
• Tuyệt tích (adj, literary): To vanish utterly, to become extinct. Often used in more formal or literary contexts.

Synonyms

• Disappeared without a trace: The closest direct translation.
• Vanished: To disappear suddenly and completely.
• Gone missing: A more general term for being absent and unaccounted for.

Related Phrases

• Báo cáo biệt tích: To report someone missing.
  • Gia đình đã báo cáo biệt tích với cảnh sát. (The family reported him missing to the police.)
• Tìm kiếm người biệt tích: To search for a missing person.
  • Đội tìm kiếm người biệt tích đang làm việc cật lực. (The missing persons search team is working hard.)

Related Idioms

• Biệt tích như chim bay: To vanish like a flying bird; to disappear completely and suddenly.
  • Sau vụ scandal, ông ta biệt tích như chim bay. (After the scandal, he vanished like a flying bird.)
• Biệt vô âm tín: (Literally: to be cut off without news or letters). This phrase is very close in meaning, emphasizing the lack of any communication or information after disappearing.
  • Con trai đi xa rồi biệt vô âm tín. (My son went far away and then we heard nothing from him again.)

adj

1. Gone without leaving a single trace