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罪魁禍首

简罪魁祸首 · 繁罪魁禍首

Mandarin · pinyin zuì kuí huò shǒu

(idiom) criminal ringleader; main offender; main culprit; main cause of a disaster

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Characters in this entry

罪: zuì · crime, sin, vice; evil; hardship
魁: kuí · chief; leader; best; monstrous
禍: Look up this written character
首: shǒu · head; first; leader, chief; a poem; Kangxi radical 185
祸: huò · misfortune, calamity, disaster

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–4–3 · zui4 kui2 huo4 shou3

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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.

罪魁禍首 · find source passages ↗ · 罪魁祸首 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zeoi6 fui1 wo6 sau2

Cantonese word readings for 罪魁禍首. 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

(literal, figurative) ringleader; main culprit; principal offender

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

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