DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

流失

Mandarin · pinyin liú shī

(of soil etc) to wash away
to be eroded
(fig.) (of talented staff, followers of a religious faith, investment funds etc) to go elsewhere
to fail to be retained

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Characters in this entry

流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
失: shī · lose; make mistake, neglect

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1 · liu2 shi1

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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 · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lau4 sat1

Cantonese word readings for 流失. 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

(of soil, nutrient, etc.) to be washed away; to be lost from erosion
(figurative, of people, property, talents or other valuable resources) to be lost; to be drained

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

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