Historical or formal term for capital punishment, often implying punishment for a crime. Rare in modern everyday language; more commonly expressed as 死刑.
Under old laws, the death penalty could be imposed for serious crimes.
execution of a criminal; putting to death as punishment
execution of an offender's entire family
written denunciation; condemnation in writing
punishing criminals; executing justice
Rare kanji form; primarily used in historical or legal contexts. The word is not commonly written in kana.
The kanji 誅 originally meant 'to punish' or 'to execute' in classical Chinese. The Japanese reading ちゅう is derived from the historical Chinese pronunciation. The exact historical derivation of the word's usage in Japanese is uncertain; it appears mainly in older texts.