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幸災樂禍

简幸灾乐祸 · 繁幸災樂禍

Mandarin · pinyin xìng zāi lè huò

(idiom) to take pleasure in another's misfortune

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Characters in this entry

幸: xìng · luck(ily), favor, fortunately
災: Look up this written character
樂: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music
禍: Look up this written character
灾: zāi · calamity, disaster, catastrophe
乐: lè · happy, glad; enjoyable; music
祸: huò · misfortune, calamity, disaster

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–4 · xing4 zai1 le4 huo4

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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.

幸災樂禍 · find source passages ↗ · 幸灾乐祸 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hang6 zoi1 lok6 wo6

Cantonese word readings for 幸災樂禍. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to take joy in calamity and rejoice the disaster; schadenfreude

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

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