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柴米油鹽

简柴米油盐 · 繁柴米油鹽

Mandarin · pinyin chái mǐ yóu yán

(lit.) firewood, rice, oil and salt (idiom)
(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: Look up this written character
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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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.

柴米油鹽 · find source passages ↗ · 柴米油盐 · find source passages ↗

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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

(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

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