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溺

Mandarin · pinyin nì#

to drown
to indulge
addicted to
to spoil (a child)

Mandarin · pinyin niào#

variant of 尿 niào

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溺: nì · drown; submerge in water; indulge

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

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Mandarin tones

4 · ni4

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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

nik1 · nik6 · niu6

Cantonese word readings for 溺. 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

to drown; to submerge
to indulge; to be addicted
a surname

character · Etymology 2

(alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 尿 (“urine; to urinate”)

character · Etymology 3

(historical dictionaries only) alternative form of 弱 (ruò, “name of a river”)
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 弱 (ruò, “weak”)

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

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