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水

Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ#

water
(after a name) ... River
to swim (used mostly in 會水 huì shuǐ and 水性 shuǐ xìng)
(coll.) lacking in substance; shoddy
(bound form) additional cost; extra income
classifier for washings of a garment

Mandarin · pinyin Shuǐ#

surname Shui
Shui ethnic group

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Characters in this entry

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

3 · 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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 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.

character · Etymology 1

water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)
liquid; potion; juice
liquid; potion; juice — (specifically) molten metal
(colloquial, chiefly Singapore, Malaysia) synonym of 飲料 /饮料 (yǐnliào, “beverage”)
(archaic, poetic) river
body of water
flood
water, one of the five elements of Wu Xing (五行 (-))
water, one of the five elements of Wu Xing (五行 (-)) — (Classical) short for 水曜日 (shuǐyàorì): Wednesday
additional cost or income
(dialectal) rain
(Cantonese) money (Classifier: 嚿 c)
(Cantonese) source of revenue (Classifier: 條／条 c)
(Cantonese) to fool; to deceive; to misguide
(Cantonese, figurative) wave (event); rush
to swim
(colloquial) lacking substance or power; worthless
(colloquial) to produce low effort content
(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 划水 (huáshuǐ, “to shirk; to slack off”)
(colloquial) Classifier for the number of times clothing was washed.
Sui people
a surname

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

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