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苦主

Mandarin · pinyin kǔ zhǔ

(old) the family of the victim in a murder case
(Tw, HK) victim (of a crime, misfortune etc)
(Tw) (coll.) person who bears the burden while others benefit

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Characters in this entry

苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
主: zhǔ · master, chief owner; host; lord

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3 · ku3 zhu3

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu2 zyu2

Cantonese word readings for 苦主. 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.

noun

(historical) family of the victim in a murder case
people who have been cheated on by their lovers or spouses

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

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