Japanese symbol for “bailing”

除水

じょすい

Romaji: josui

removing water; draining; bailing

In Japanese, bailing is 除水, read じょすい (josui).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Meanings

n removing water; draining; bailing

Kanji and stroke order

除

exclude, division (x/3), remove

on: ジョ、ジ
kun: のぞ.く、-よ.け

10 strokes · JLPT 2

水

water

on: スイ
kun: みず、みず-

4 strokes · JLPT 4

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

Word	Reading	Meaning
解除	かいじょ kaijo	termination (of a contract); cancellation; rescinding
掃除	そうじ souji	cleaning; sweeping; dusting
排除	はいじょ haijo	exclusion; removal; elimination
削除	さくじょ sakujo	deletion; elimination; erasure
除外	じょがい jogai	exception; exclusion
除去	じょきょ jokyo	removal; getting rid of
水着	みずぎ mizugi	bathing suit; swimsuit; swimmers
水準	すいじゅん suijun	level; standard

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.