Meaning of 开水
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- boiled water
- boiling water
How to use 开水
开水 can mean water that is boiling right now or water that was boiled and is now safe to drink, often still hot. In China people commonly drink boiled water instead of tap water, and many trains and offices have a 开水 dispenser. Example: 我去打一壶开水。(Wǒ qù dǎ yì hú kāishuǐ.) I'm going to get a pot of boiled water.
开 (kāi) means to open, and when water boils it "opens up" with bubbles breaking the surface. So 开水 is water that has opened up: boiled water.
Common mistake: Learners often assume 开水 means "open water" or plain water in general, but it only means boiled water. Cold drinking water from a bottle is 矿泉水 (kuàngquánshuǐ), and plain water in general is just 水 (shuǐ).
开水 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
开 kāi · to open · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
水 shuǐ · water · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 开水.
| 打开 | dǎkāi | to open; to show (a ticket) |
| 开玩笑 | kāi wánxiào | to play a joke; to make fun of; to joke |
| 开车 | kāichē | to drive a car (or train etc); (slang) to post sexual content online; to make a sexual jok |
| 开会 | kāihuì | to hold or attend a meeting |
| 水果 | shuǐguǒ | fruit |
| 离开 | líkāi | to depart; to leave |
| 开心 | kāixīn | to feel happy; to rejoice |
| 走开 | zǒukāi | to leave; to walk away; to beat it; to move aside |
| 分开 | fēnkāi | to separate; to part |
| 水平 | shuǐpíng | horizontal; level; a standard; a level (of ability, development etc) |
| 开学 | kāixué | (of a student) to start school; (of a semester) to begin |
| 药水 | yàoshuǐ | medicine in liquid form; bottled medicine |
Questions about 开水
What does 开水 mean?
开水 (kāishuǐ) means "boiled water; boiling water" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 开水?
开水 is made of 2 characters: 开 (4 strokes), 水 (4 strokes). That is 8 strokes in total.
Is 开水 an HSK word?
Yes. 开水 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 开水 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 开水 is written 開水.
Is 开水 always hot?
Not always. 开水 is water that has been boiled, so it is often hot, but cooled boiled water is also called 凉开水 (liáng kāishuǐ). If you want to stress that it is hot, say 热水 (rèshuǐ).
How do you say the water is boiling?
Use 开 as a verb: 水开了。(Shuǐ kāi le.) The water is boiling. You can also say 烧开水 (shāo kāishuǐ) for to boil water.