罪 (zuì): crime; offense; sin

Meanings

1 crime; offense; sin
2 guilt; blame; fault

Characters

罪

zuì

crime; guilt; sin

Examples

他犯了什么罪？

Tā fàn le shénme zuì?

What crime did he commit?

这不是你的罪。

Zhèbú shì nǐ de zuì.

This is not your fault.

法院判他有罪。

Fǎyuàn pàn tā yǒu zuì.

The court found him guilty.

他认罪了。

Tā rènzuì le.

He pleaded guilty.

Tips

usage

Key compounds: 犯罪 (fàn zuì, to commit a crime), 有罪 (yǒu zuì, guilty), 无罪 (wú zuì, innocent/not guilty), 认罪 (rèn zuì, to plead guilty), 赎罪 (shú zuì, to atone).

memory

罒 (net) on top + 非 (wrong) on bottom — caught in a net for doing wrong.

Components

radical

罒 wǎng

net (radical)

Top radical 罒 — a hunting net seen from above, the flat side-form of 网. Indexes 罪 as something caught in a net: criminals, faults, snared wrongdoing. Same net anchors the 罒-family of capture and judgement: 罚 (punish), 置 (place), 署 (office), 罗 (catch in a net).

semantic

非 fēi

not; wrong (semantic)

Bottom 非 — two wings turned away from each other, the picture of 'not, contrary, wrong'. Combined with the net above, 罪 reads as 'caught in the net of doing wrong'. This was a deliberate choice in early reforms to replace the older form 辠; the visual logic is unusually transparent.