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洪水 (hóng shuǐ) — flood

Definition

A noun for a flood itself — the event of overflowing water, usually natural and large-scale. Unlike 淹没 or 淹 (verbs meaning 'to submerge'), 洪水 is the thing that does the flooding, not the act.

noun
flood
Measure word · 场

Examples

  • 洪水。
    Qù nián de hóng shuǐ chōng huǐ le zhěng zuò cūn zhuāng.
    Last year's flood destroyed the entire village.
  • 洪水，。
    hóng shuǐ Guò hòu, zhèng fǔ zǔ zhī le hěn duō jiù yuán xíng dòng.
    After the flood, the government organized many rescue operations.
  • 洪水。
    Nóng mín men dān xīn hóng shuǐ huì yǐng xiǎng jīn nián de shōu cheng.
    Farmers worry that the flood will affect this year's harvest.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

洪hóngflood
水shuǐwater

洪 points to flood and 水 to water, giving flood water.

Characters in this word

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
水水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
共
共gòng洪hóng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

洪 is built from 水 (water) and 共 (gòng), with 共 giving the sound.

Open 洪 →

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 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6HSK 2.0 Level 6Weather

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