尿

niào / suī
noun HSK 7-9 #1,535

Meanings

  1. 1 urine
  2. 2 to urinate

Examples

孩子尿尿
Háizi xiǎng niàoniào.
The child needs to pee.
Yīshēng ràng tā qù zuò niàojiǎn.
The doctor asked him to take a urine test.

Tips

usage
尿 works as both noun (urine) and verb (to urinate). The reduplicated 尿尿 is the casual childish form used with toddlers.
register
Standard Mandarin reads 尿 in all modern compounds. A second reading 尿 survives only in dialect words like 尿泡 and 尿脬 (bladder); don't use suī with general compounds.

Components

radical
shī
corpse; body (radical form)
Top-left body radical — originally pictured a person crouched. Sets the bodily-discharge frame shared by (feces), (fart) and (tail).
semantic
shuǐ
water
Inner — pictograph of flowing water. With the body radical above, this is one of the most starkly literal compound ideographs in the script: a body releasing water = urine. No phonetic component; both pieces are pure meaning.

Stroke Order

尿 niào