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上水

Mandarin · pinyin shàng shuǐ#

upper reaches (of a river)
to go upstream
to add some water
to water (a crop etc)

Mandarin · pinyin Shàng shuǐ#

Sheung Shui (area in Hong Kong)

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Characters in this entry

上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–3 · shang4 shui3

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2character links1same-tone record

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 13 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng6 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 上水. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

to add water (to a kettle, field, etc.)
to sail against the current
to feed water to a steam engine or radiator (of a car, ship, etc.)
to sprinkle water on vegetables or fruit
(Cantonese) to come out of the water
(Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, slang) to reappear after disappearing for a long period of time
(Southern Min) to unload a ship
(Hakka) to be submerged in floodwater

noun

upstream; upper reaches of a river

name

Sheung Shui (an area of Hong Kong)

noun

(Southwestern Mandarin, dialectal Cantonese, Hakka) haslet

verb

(Min) to draw water (from a well)

noun

(Southern Min) edema; dropsy

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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