Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Completely deserted / utterly empty: Describes a place that is totally devoid of people, activity, or sound, emphasizing an extreme and often eerie state of emptiness and quiet.
   • Deathly quiet / profoundly still: Emphasizes an absolute, sometimes unsettling, absence of noise or movement.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Công viên vắng tanh lúc nửa đêm. (The park was completely deserted at midnight.)
  • Sau buổi họp, văn phòng trở nên vắng tanh. (After the meeting, the office became utterly empty.)
  • Căn nhà cũ vắng tanh không một tiếng động. (The old house was deathly quiet, without a sound.)

Advanced Usage

• The word "vắng tanh" is an intensified form of "vắng" (empty, absent). The suffix "-tanh" adds a strong emphatic quality, conveying a sense of totality and often a negative or forlorn atmosphere. It is more literary and evocative than the neutral "vắng".

Variants and Related Words

• Vắng (adj): empty, absent, not present.
  • Phòng học rất vắng. (The classroom is very empty.)
• Vắng ngắt (adj): synonym for "vắng tanh," meaning utterly deserted and silent.
  • Con đường làng vắng ngắt. (The village road was utterly deserted.)
• Vắng vẻ (adj): quiet, secluded, sparsely populated (less intense than "vắng tanh").
  • Một khu phố vắng vẻ. (A quiet neighborhood.)

Synonyms

• Deserted: abandoned, with no people present.
• Empty: containing no people or things.
• Still: deep quiet and absence of movement.

Related Idioms

• Vắng như chùa Bà Đanh: (as empty as Bà Đanh Pagoda) – a proverbial idiom meaning a place is completely deserted and unpopular.
  • Quán cà phê mới mở nên vắng như chùa Bà Đanh. (The new coffee shop is as empty as Bà Đanh Pagoda.)