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沉船

Mandarin · pinyin chén chuán

shipwreck
sunken boat
sinking ship

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Characters in this entry

沉: chén · sink, submerge; addicted to
船: chuán · ship, boat, vessel

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · chen2 chuan2

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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 · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cam4 syun4

Cantonese word readings for 沉船. 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.

noun

sunken ship or boat; shipwreck (Classifier: 艘 m; 條／条 m; 隻／只 m c)

verb

(of a ship or boat) to sink
(Hong Kong Cantonese, figurative, neologism, slang, of a person, specifically, originally) to fall in love with a prostitute or a sexual partner; (now) to fall in love for someone or something against morality

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

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