ùn ùn
Definition
Adjective:
- Flowing or moving in a large, dense, and continuous mass: Describes a large crowd, traffic, or quantity of things advancing or gathering in a thick, steady, and often somewhat chaotic stream.
- Bustling or swarming: Conveys a sense of a place being very crowded and active with many people or things moving about.
Adverb:
- In a continuous and dense stream: Modifies a verb to indicate that an action (like arriving, moving, or gathering) is done by a large, unbroken multitude.
Usage Examples
- Adjective/Adverb:
- Người dân ùn ùn kéo về quê ăn Tết. (People streamed back to their hometown in a continuous mass for the Lunar New Year.)
- Xe cộ ùn ùn nối đuôi nhau trên đường cao tốc. (Vehicles crowded onto the highway in an endless line.)
- Khách du lịch ùn ùn đổ về đảo vào mùa hè. (Tourists swarmed to the island in a dense flow during the summer.)
Advanced Usage
- Often used in journalistic or descriptive writing to vividly depict scenes of mass movement, congestion, or migration.
- It emphasizes both the large quantity and the continuous, sometimes overwhelming, nature of the movement.
Variants and Related Words
- Ùn tắc (v/n): to be congested; a traffic jam.
- Đường phố bị ùn tắc nghiêm trọng. (The street was seriously congested.)
- Ùn ứ (v): to be backlogged, to pile up (often for work, goods, or paperwork).
- Hàng hóa ùn ứ tại cảng. (Goods are piling up at the port.)
Synonyms
- To stream: to move or flow in a continuous current.
- To swarm: to move in or form a large, dense crowd.
- To pour in: to arrive or enter in large numbers.
- To throng: to gather or fill in great numbers.
Related Idioms
- Ùn ùn kéo đến: to arrive in droves, to come in a steady, large crowd.
- Người hâm mộ ùn ùn kéo đến sân vận động. (Fans streamed into the stadium in droves.)
- Ùn ùn như kiến: as swarming as ants (a simile emphasizing great numbers and busy movement).
- Dòng người di cư ùn ùn như kiến. (The stream of migrants moved like a swarm of ants.)