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咎

Mandarin · pinyin jiù

fault
to blame
to punish
calamity
misfortune

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咎: jiù · fault, defect; error, mistake

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4 · jiu4

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1character link30same-tone records

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gau3 · gou1

Cantonese word readings for 咎. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character · Etymology 1

fault; defect; error; mistake
calamity; misfortune
to blame; to punish; to find fault

character · Etymology 2

(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 鼛 (gāo, “large drum”)
a surname
alternative form of 皋 (gāo, “a surname”):

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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