DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

點水

简点水 · 繁點水

Mandarin · pinyin diǎn shuǐ

to skim
lightly touching the water (as the dragonfly in the idiom 蜻蜓點水)
skin-deep

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

點: diǎn · dot, speck, spot; point, degree
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
点: diǎn · dot, speck, spot; point, degree

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–3 · dian3 shui3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

點水 · find source passages ↗ · 点水 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗