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水深 (shuǐ shēn) — depth of water (literal); (figurative) deep water; a dangerous or complicated situation

Definition

Literally 'depth of water' — the measurable depth of a body of water. Figuratively, 水深 describes a dangerous or complicated situation (as in 涉足深水), not simply 'complicated'.

noun
depth of water (literal)(figurative) deep watera dangerous or complicated situation

Examples

  • 水深？
    Zhè tiáo hé de shuǐ shēn shì duō shǎo mǐ?
    What is the depth of this river in meters?
  • 水深。
    Cè liáng shuǐ shēn shì háng hǎi de zhòng yào gōng zuò.
    Measuring water depth is an important task in navigation.
  • 水深，。
    Miàn duì zhè ge shuǐ shēn, tā yóu yù le hěn jiǔ.
    Faced with this deep water, he hesitated for a long time.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

水shuǐwater
深shēndeep

水 and 深 picture water being deep, which names the depth of water.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

Open 水 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
𥥍
𥥍𥥍深shēn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

深 is built from 氵, the side form of 水 “water”, and 𥥍, which supplies the sound.

Open 深 →
Appears in
Geography & Landforms

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