Word information
Simplified杀鸡儆猴
Traditional殺雞儆猴
Pinyinshā jī jǐng hóu
Part of speechDictionary
HSK 3.0Not listed
HSK 2.0Not listed
Chinese word dictionary
杀鸡儆猴
shā jī jǐng hóu · lit. to kill the chicken to warn the monkey (idiom); fig. to punish an individual as an example to others
Character breakdown
Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.
How to learn 杀鸡儆猴
Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.
When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.
Related vocabulary
Words with the same characters
Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.
鸡蛋jīdàn
(chicken) egg; hen's egg; CL:個|个[ge4],打[da2]
鸡jīfowl; chicken; CL:隻|只[zhi1]; (slang) prostitute; variant of 雞|鸡[ji1]
猴子hóuzimonkey; CL:隻|只[zhi1]
杀shāto kill; to slay; to murder; to attack; to weaken; to reduce; (dialect) to smart; (used after a verb) extremely
自杀zìshāto kill oneself; to commit suicide; to attempt suicide
鹤立鸡群hèlìjīqúna crane in a flock of chicken (idiom); way above the common; manifestly superior