# 罪魁祸首 (zuìkuíhuòshǒu)

In Mandarin Chinese, 罪魁祸首 (zuìkuíhuòshǒu) means “main culprit; chief offender”. It is part of the HSK 7–9 vocabulary list in the official HSK 3.0 standard.

- Meaning: main culprit; chief offender
- Pinyin: zuìkuíhuòshǒu (zui4 kui2 huo4 shou3)
- Traditional: 罪魁禍首
- HSK 3.0 · Level 7–9

## Examples

- 吸烟是这种疾病的罪魁祸首。
  Xīyān shì zhè zhǒng jíbìng de zuìkuíhuòshǒu.
  Smoking is the main culprit of this disease.

## Characters

- [罪](https://hanziro.com/word/zui-crime/) (zuì): crime; guilt
- 魁 (kuí): chief; head
- 祸 (huò): disaster; misfortune
- [首](https://hanziro.com/word/shou-head/) (shǒu): head; chief

https://hanziro.com/word/zui-kui-huo-shou-main-culprit/

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Audio: audio-cmn (CC BY-SA).