Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Empty, completely devoid of contents: Describes a state where something is utterly empty, with nothing left inside. This meaning is primarily used in the specific idiom "ráo hoảnh".
   • Bare, desolate: Can imply a stark, barren emptiness.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cái túi đã ráo hoảnh. (The bag is completely empty.)
  • Sau trận bão, khu chợ trông hoảnh hoắt, ráo hoảnh. (After the storm, the market looked desolate and utterly empty.)

Advanced Usage

• "ráo hoảnh": This is the primary and almost exclusive modern usage. It functions as an adjectival phrase meaning "completely empty", "utterly devoid", or "cleaned out". It emphasizes a total absence.
  • Hũ gạo đã ráo hoảnh. (The rice jar is completely empty.)
  • Tài khoản ngân hàng của anh ta cạn ráo hoảnh. (His bank account is completely drained.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hoảnh hoắt (adj): An intensified form meaning very desolate, bleak, or starkly empty. It often describes a place or scene.
  • Căn nhà bỏ hoang trông hoảnh hoắt. (The abandoned house looks starkly desolate.)
• Ráo (adj): Dry, dried up. In "ráo hoảnh", "ráo" contributes the sense of being dried out or depleted.
  • Sau cơn mưa, đường phố đã ráo. (After the rain, the streets are dry.)

Synonyms

• Trống rỗng: Empty, void.
• Cạn sạch: Drained dry, exhausted (of resources).
• Vắng tanh: Deserted, devoid of people.

Notes on Usage

• Important: In contemporary Vietnamese, "hoảnh" is very rarely used alone. Its standard and almost only usage is in the fixed idiom "ráo hoảnh".
• The word is considered somewhat literary or descriptive and is not extremely common in everyday casual speech, except in the phrase "ráo hoảnh".

1. xem ráo hoảnh