Meaning of 洪水
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- deluge; flood
How to use 洪水
洪水 is the normal word for a flood, used in news, weather reports and history. It often appears with verbs like 发 (fā, to break out) or 抗 (kàng, to fight). Example: 去年这里发了一场大洪水。(Qùnián zhèlǐ fāle yì chǎng dà hóngshuǐ.) Last year there was a big flood here.
洪 (hóng) has the water radical 氵 on the left and 共 (gòng, together) on the right, so picture all the water coming together at once. Add 水 (shuǐ, water) and you get a flood.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write 洪 as 共 and forget the water radical 氵, or mix it up with 红 (hóng, red), which sounds the same but has the silk radical 纟. Remember that floods need water, so 洪 takes 氵.
洪水 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.
洪 hóng · deluge · 9 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
水 shuǐ · water · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 洪水.
| 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 |
| 海水 | hǎishuǐ | seawater |
| 汽水 | qìshuǐ | soda pop; carbonated soft drink |
| 泪水 | lèishuǐ | teardrop; tears |
| 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 洪水
What does 洪水 mean?
洪水 (hóngshuǐ) means "deluge; flood" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 洪水?
洪水 is made of 2 characters: 洪 (9 strokes), 水 (4 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 洪水 an HSK word?
Yes. 洪水 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What measure word is used with 洪水?
The most common one is 场 (chǎng), as in 一场洪水 (yì chǎng hóngshuǐ), a flood. You will also see 次 (cì) when counting how many times floods happened.
Is 洪水 used figuratively in Chinese?
Yes, it can describe something overwhelming, as in the idiom 洪水猛兽 (hóngshuǐ měngshòu), literally floods and fierce beasts. It means a great menace or something people fear.