水逆

Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ nì

Meanings

  1. (astrology) Mercury retrograde (abbr. for 水星逆行 shuǐ xīng nì xíng); (coll.) to have a period of bad luck
  2. (TCM) water retention in the abdomen causing the vomiting of liquids as soon as one drinks
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
逆
nì · disobey, rebel; rebel, traitor
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4 · shui3 ni4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

水逆 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. (astrology) the retrograde motion of Mercury, or the bad luck it brings; or, bad luck in general

verb

  1. (astrology) to have bad luck due to the retrograde motion of Mercury; or, to have bad luck in general

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

水逆 · shui3 ni4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 62,534
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record水逆 水逆 [shui3 ni4] /(astrology) Mercury retrograde (abbr. for 水星逆行[shui3 xing1 ni4 xing2]); (coll.) to have a period of bad luck/(TCM) water retention in the abdomen causing the vomiting of liquids as soon as one drinks/