lit. water may keep the boat afloat but may also sink it (proverb) / fig. the people can support a regime or overturn it / if sth is used properly, one can benefit from it, otherwise it can do harm / things can be double-edged
DICTIONARY SEARCH
Results for “水”
986 results
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Exact character matches appear first. For otherwise comparable matches, frequency in film and television subtitles helps determine order. Direct English-definition matches and prefix matches also affect ranking. Word length and the availability of usage notes do not improve rank.
Frequency data: Cai & Brysbaert, SUBTLEX-CH (2010), Creative Commons Attribution. The data includes word forms with at least 10 occurrences in an older subtitle sample. It does not provide current frequency or HSK levels. Absence from the sample does not establish that a word is rare. Names, variants and restricted readings identified in the source appear after general-use entries within the same match type.
(saying) water that is too clear has no fish, and one who is too severe has no friends
aquatic plants / water and grass (i.e. favorable foraging land for livestock or wild animals) / (Malaysia) (coll.) drinking straw
Acorus calamus / sweet sedge or sweet flag
algal bloom / water bloom
spilt water returns to the trough (idiom) / fig. people remember where they belong
(HK) swimsuit (loanword from Japanese "mizugi")
water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes)
(bird species of China) sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)
vapor
water spinach or ong choy (Ipomoea aquatica), used as a vegetable in south China and southeast Asia
small red radish
piranha (fish)
water treatment
slender and supple waist / lithe body / feminine pose
hirudin
Hydra (freshwater polyp)
sessile polyp / sea anemone
water meter / indicator of water level
flowing sleeves (part of theatrical costume)
hydrolysis (chemical reaction with water)
capybara
mink (Mustela lutreola, M. vison)
smuggled goods / unauthorized goods
water pollution
(archaic) navy / person employed to post messages on the Internet (abbr. for 網絡水軍|网络水军[])
(astrology) Mercury retrograde (abbr. for 水星逆行[]) / (coll.) to have a period of bad luck / (TCM) water retention in the abdomen causing the vomiting of liquids as soon as one drinks
waterborne transport
region with many rivers and lakes
volume of water / quantity of flow
splash cymbal (drum kit component)
mercury-vapor lamp
cement (Shanghainese) (loanword)
sluice / water gate / waterlocks / floodgate / lock / dam
water and land / by water and land (transport) / amphibian / delicacies from land and sea
water and land transport
amphibious (vehicle)
army and navy (in Qing times)
water hazard (golf)
(bird species of China) pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus)
Definitions from CC-CEDICT · 125,326 source records · Release 2026-10-27