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鴛鴦戲水

简鸳鸯戏水 · 繁鴛鴦戲水

Mandarin · pinyin yuān yāng xì shuǐ

lit. mandarin ducks playing in the water
fig. to make love

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Characters in this entry

鴛: Look up this written character
鴦: Look up this written character
戲: Look up this written character
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
鸳: yuān · male mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)
鸯: yāng · female mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)
戏: xì · theatrical play, show

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · yuan1 yang1 xi4 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.

鴛鴦戲水 · find source passages ↗ · 鸳鸯戏水 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jyun1 joeng1 hei3 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 鴛鴦戲水. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to have pure unadulterated love (of a romantic couple)

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

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