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活該

简活该 · 繁活該

Mandarin · pinyin huó gāi

(coll.) serve sb right
deservedly
ought
should

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Characters in this entry

活: huó · live, exist, survive; lively
該: gāi · should, ought to, need to
该: gāi · should, ought to, need to

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1 · huo2 gai1

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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.

活該 · find source passages ↗ · 活该 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

wut6 goi1

Cantonese word readings for 活該. 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.

verb

(colloquial) to serve someone right; to have gotten what's coming to one

intj

(colloquial) You deserve it.

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

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