Word
潜水
Meaning in Englishdiving
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
潜水 means the act of going underwater; it refers to underwater diving as an activity or the state of submerging beneath the surface, used in technical, military, and scientific contexts.
Main meanings
- diving underwater as an activity or sport
- submersion beneath the water level in technical or scientific contexts
- appears in compounds related to underwater operation, such as 潜水艦 and 潜水士
How to use it
In Japanese, 潜水 is used as a noun and in compounds to denote underwater diving and submersion; it can take the verb 潜水する to mean to dive, and appears in technical, military, and scientific contexts; for recreational diving, ダイビング is more common in everyday language.
Variants and close terms
- ダイビング (dai-bingu) — modern loanword for diving, common in recreational contexts
- 潜水する (sensui suru) — to dive; verb form
- 潜水艦 (sensuikan) — submarine
- 浮上 (ふじょう, fujou) — to surface; antonym
Composition
- 潜: to submerge, conceal
- 水: water
Etymology
潜 + 水 form a Sino-Japanese compound; the readings combine as せん + すい to yield sensui, with the left radical signaling water and submersion.
Word class
Noun, suru-verb (名詞, サ変動詞)