牢獄之災

简 牢狱之灾 · 繁 牢獄之災
Mandarin · pinyin láo yù zhī zāi

Meanings

  1. imprisonment
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Characters in this entry

牢
láo · prison; stable, pen; secure
獄
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之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
災
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狱
yù · prison, jail; case; lawsuit
灾
zāi · calamity, disaster, catastrophe
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4–1–1 · lao2 yu4 zhi1 zai1

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

lou4 juk6 zi1 zoi1

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. (idiomatic) imprisonment; prison; jail

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

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