Chinese word

溺水

Pronunciation

Pinyinnì shuǐ

Meaning

  • verbdrown

Example

小孩在泳池里溺水，家长很紧张。xiǎo hái zài yǒng chí lǐ nì shuǐ jiā zhǎng hěn jǐn zhāng

The child is drowning in the pool, and the parent is very worried.

Illustration for 溺水 (drown)

More examples

邻居看到有人在河里溺水，立刻跳下去把人救起。lín jū kàn dào yǒu rén zài hé lǐ nì shuǐ lì kè tiào xià qù bǎ rén jiù qǐ

The neighbor saw someone drowning in the river and immediately jumped in to rescue them.

Core concept

Water replaces the air around a person, turning a swim or accident into a life-threatening loss of breath.

Common phrases

  • 救起溺水的人jiù qǐ nì shuǐ de rén

    rescue a drowning person

  • 防止溺水fáng zhǐ nì shuǐ

    prevent drowning

Similar words

淹死yān sǐ: Losing one's life after being submerged in water and unable to breathe.
呛到qiàng dào: Breathing in water or another liquid and coughing hard or feeling short of breath.
落水luò shuǐ: Entering a body of water by falling into it.

Definition in Chinese

在水中因吸入或被水淹没而失去呼吸能力，表现为处于生命危险的状态或导致死亡。zài shuǐ zhōng yīn xī rù huò bèi shuǐ yān mò ér shī qù hū xī néng lì biǎo xiàn wèi chǔ yú shēng mìng wēi xiǎn de zhuàng tài huò dǎo zhì sǐ wáng

Word origin

溺 (nì, "be submerged") + 水 (shuǐ, "water") creates a transparent compound that names submersion in water as the cause of the breathing emergency.

Usage tips

  • The word normally presents the person as undergoing the emergency rather than as the person causing it, which helps distinguish it from English transitive uses for making someone lose air.

Other meanings

  • drowningnoun

Opposites

  • 获救huò jiùbe rescuedverb

Related words

  • 溺水者nì shuí zhědrowning victimnoun
  • 溺死nì sǐdie by drowningverb

Word lists with this word