Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Utterly deserted / completely empty: Describes a place or situation that is profoundly and absolutely devoid of people, activity, or sound, emphasizing an extreme, palpable silence and emptiness.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Khu phố cổ vắng ngắt vào lúc nửa đêm. (The old quarter is utterly deserted at midnight.)
  • Sân trường vắng ngắt trong kỳ nghỉ hè. (The schoolyard is completely empty during summer vacation.)
  • Căn nhà ấy lúc nào cũng vắng ngắt, không một bóng người. (That house is always completely deserted, without a soul in sight.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "vắng ngắt" often carries a poetic or literary connotation, used to evoke a mood of loneliness, abandonment, or eerie quiet. It intensifies the basic meaning of "vắng" (empty/absent).

Variants and Related Words

• Vắng (adj): empty, absent, deserted.
  • Cửa hàng vắng khách. (The store has few customers/is empty of customers.)
• Vắng vẻ (adj): quiet, deserted, secluded.
  • Một con đường vắng vẻ. (A quiet/deserted road.)
• Vắng tanh (adj): very deserted, completely empty (similar to "vắng ngắt").
  • Chợ vắng tanh sau buổi trưa. (The market is completely empty after noon.)

Synonyms

• Deserted: abandoned, empty of people.
• Desolate: bleakly and depressingly empty.
• Empty: containing no people or things.

Related Idioms

• Vắng như chùa Bà Đanh: As deserted as Bà Đanh Pagoda (a proverbial idiom for a place that is extremely deserted and unattended).
  • Quán cà phê mới mở nên vắng như chùa Bà Đanh. (The new coffee shop is as deserted as Bà Đanh Pagoda.)