柴米油鹽

简 柴米油盐 · 繁 柴米油鹽
Mandarin · pinyin chái mǐ yóu yán

Meanings

  1. (lit.) firewood, rice, oil and salt (idiom)
  2. (fig.) life's daily necessities
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Characters in this entry

柴
chái · firewood, faggots, fuel
米
mǐ · hulled or husked uncooked rice
油
yóu · oil, fat, grease, lard; paints
鹽
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盐
yán · salt
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3–2–2 · chai2 mi3 you2 yan2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

caai4 mai5 jau4 jim4

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

  1. (synecdochic) alternative form of 柴米油鹽醬醋茶 /柴米油盐酱醋茶 (chái mǐ yóu yán jiàng cù chá)

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

柴米油鹽 · chai2 mi3 you2 yan2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 57,250
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record柴米油鹽 柴米油盐 [chai2 mi3 you2 yan2] /(lit.) firewood, rice, oil and salt (idiom)/(fig.) life's daily necessities/