Usage patterns 〈 人ひと 〉 が 獄ごく に 入い る for someone to be sent to prison
He committed a crime and was sent to prison.
獄ごく につながれる to be chained up / confined in prison
He was confined in prison for many years.
獄ごく から 出で る to get out of prison
Ten years later, he got out of prison.
獄ごく で 死し ぬ to die in prison
Many criminals died in prison.
Kanji 囚 captured, criminal, arrest Related words 刑務所 is the standard modern legal term for a prison facility, while 獄 is an older, more literary or generic word for a place of confinement.
監獄 was the formal pre-war legal term for a prison, whereas 獄 is a broader, more literary word that can refer to any place of confinement, historical or modern.
牢屋 is a common, everyday word for a jail cell, especially in historical settings, while 獄 sounds more formal or archaic.
Word family· 33 hell realm; Naraka · Hell · hell; misery; nightmare; inferno · volcanic hellscape; steaming wasteland
prison; jail
prison escape; jailbreak · jailbreaking (a device)
imprisonment; incarceration
prison; jail
Show 17 more Show fewer during imprisonment; while in jail; in prison
purgatory
bribery scandal; graft case
death in prison; death in jail
low-ranking prison guard · hell's tormenting devils
roundup; wholesale arrest
imprisonment; being sent to prison
prison gate · decapitation and exposure of the head (Edo-period punishment)
being sent to prison; imprisonment
prison warden
release from prison
jail; prison; punishment
going to hell; falling into hell
trial of a crime; conviction · condemnation to death by beheading
inside a prison; in prison
prison regulations; prison rules
jail warden; jailer
See all 33 in Explore →
Etymology The kanji 獄 originally depicts a place of confinement with dogs guarding it, symbolizing a prison. The reading ごく is the on'yomi, while ひとや is a native Japanese reading combining 人 (person) and 屋 (building).
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