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流水

Mandarin · pinyin liú shuǐ

running water
(business) turnover

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Characters in this entry

流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
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

2–3 · liu2 shui3

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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 · 5 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lau4 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 流水. 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.

noun

flowing water
(figurative) something flowing rapidly, continually or irreversibly like water
(figurative, business) turnover

name

(～鎮) Liushui (a town in Yicheng, Xiangyang, Hubei, China)
(～鎮) Liushui (a town in Pingtan, Fuzhou, Fujian, China)

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

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