Meaning of 泪水
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- teardrop
- tears
How to use 泪水
泪水 is a slightly more written or expressive word than 眼泪 (yǎnlèi), common in stories, songs, and descriptions of strong emotion. It often appears with verbs like 流 (liú, to flow) or 擦 (cā, to wipe). Example: 她的眼里充满了泪水。(Tā de yǎn li chōngmǎn le lèishuǐ.) Her eyes were full of tears.
泪 (lèi) is the water radical 氵 next to 目 (mù, eye), so it pictures water coming from the eye. Add 水 (shuǐ, water) and 泪水 is simply "tear water," the tears themselves.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write 泪 with 日 instead of 目 on the right. Remember it needs the eye 目, with two inner strokes. Also, the tone of 泪 is fourth tone (lèi), not third.
泪水 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.
泪 lèi · tears · 8 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
水 shuǐ · water · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 泪水.
| 水果 | shuǐguǒ | fruit |
| 水平 | shuǐpíng | horizontal; level; a standard; a level (of ability, development etc) |
| 药水 | yàoshuǐ | medicine in liquid form; bottled medicine |
| 凉水 | liángshuǐ | cool water; unboiled water |
| 眼泪 | yǎnlèi | tear; teardrop |
| 海水 | hǎishuǐ | seawater |
| 汽水 | qìshuǐ | soda pop; carbonated soft drink |
| 矿泉水 | kuàngquánshuǐ | mineral water |
| 开水 | kāishuǐ | boiled water; boiling water |
| 纯净水 | chúnjìngshuǐ | purified water |
| 雨水 | yǔshuǐ | rainwater; rainfall; rain |
| 水分 | shuǐfèn | moisture content; (fig.) overstatement; padding |
Questions about 泪水
What does 泪水 mean?
泪水 (lèishuǐ) means "teardrop; tears" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 泪水?
泪水 is made of 2 characters: 泪 (8 strokes), 水 (4 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 泪水 an HSK word?
Yes. 泪水 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 泪水 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 泪水 is written 淚水.
What is the difference between 泪水 and 眼泪?
Both mean tears. 眼泪 is the everyday spoken word, while 泪水 sounds more literary and emotional, and fits well in writing or descriptive sentences.
How do you say "to cry tears" or "tears are flowing" with 泪水?
A common pattern is 泪水流了下来 (lèishuǐ liú le xiàlái), meaning the tears ran down. You can also say 流下泪水 (liúxià lèishuǐ), to shed tears.