獄 meaning and stroke order
Prison, jail; case; lawsuit
How to write 獄, stroke by stroke
14 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 獄
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- prison
How 獄 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A guard dog 犭 talking 言 to a prisoner 犬.
Radical: 犭 (dog), shared by 88 characters on this site.
How to remember 獄
Picture two dogs, 犭 on the left and 犬 on the right, guarding someone in the middle who can only talk 言 (yán). Words trapped between two guard dogs: that is a prison.
獄 is the traditional form, and it rarely stands alone in modern speech. It appears mostly in compounds like 監獄 (jiānyù, prison), 地獄 (dìyù, hell) and 出獄 (chūyù, to be released from prison). Example: 他去年出獄了。(Tā qùnián chūyù le.) He got out of prison last year.
Common mistake: Learners often write the middle part as 口 or forget it, but it must be the full 言 squeezed between 犭 and 犬. Also keep the fourth tone yù, not yǔ like 語 or 雨.
Common words with 獄
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 監獄 | jiānyù | prison | HSK 7-9 |
| 地獄 | dìyù | hell; underworld; (Buddhism) Naraka; (coll.) (of humor, jokes, content etc) extremely dark | HSK 7-9 |
| 出獄 | chūyù | to be released from prison | |
| 入獄 | rùyù | to go to jail; to be sent to prison | |
| 越獄 | yuèyù | to break out of prison; to jailbreak (an iOS device etc) | |
| 煉獄 | liànyù | purgatory | |
| 獄警 | yùjǐng | prison officer | |
| 典獄長 | diǎnyùzhǎng | prison warden | |
| 逃獄 | táoyù | to escape (from prison); to jump bail | |
| 監獄長 | jiānyùzhǎng | prison warden | |
| 牢獄 | láoyù | prison | |
| 牢獄之災 | láoyùzhīzāi | imprisonment | |
| 獄卒 | yùzú | jailer (old) |
Characters that contain 獄
Learning 獄 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 獄
How many strokes are in 獄?
獄 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 獄 mean?
獄 (yù) means prison, jail; case; lawsuit. A common word with it is 监狱 (jiānyù), meaning "prison".
How do you pronounce 獄?
獄 is pronounced yù, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 獄?
The radical of 獄 is 犭, which carries the idea of "dog". Dictionaries list 獄 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 獄?
獄 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 狱, used in mainland China and Singapore.
What does 越獄 mean besides escaping prison?
越獄 (yuèyù) literally means to break out of prison. In tech talk it also means to jailbreak a phone, such as an iPhone, to remove the maker's restrictions.
Can 地獄 describe something besides hell?
Yes. In casual speech 地獄 can describe a terrible situation, and 地獄笑話 (dìyù xiàohua) means an extremely dark joke. It works a bit like English "hellish" or "dark humor".