Definition

1. Noun:
   • Prison; jail; gaol: A place where people are held as punishment for crimes or while awaiting trial. This is the primary and most common meaning.
   • Dungeon: A dark, often underground cell in a castle or prison. This meaning emphasizes confinement in a dark, oppressive place.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Hắn bị tống vào ngục vì tội cướp. (He was thrown into prison for robbery.)
  • Nhà tù đó là một ngục tối khét tiếng. (That prison was a notorious dungeon.)
  • Lính gác ngục rất nghiêm khắc. (The prison guards are very strict.)

Advanced Usage

• "ngục tối": Literally "dark prison," commonly used to mean "dungeon" or metaphorically for any place of extreme suffering and confinement.
  • Căn hầm đó giống như một ngục tối. (That basement is like a dungeon.)
• "địa ngục trần gian": A common idiom meaning "hell on earth," used to describe a place or situation of extreme suffering. (Note: This is a compound phrase listed here as an advanced, idiomatic usage).
  • Chiến tranh đã biến ngôi làng thành địa ngục trần gian. (The war turned the village into a hell on earth.)

Variants and Related Words

• Nhà tù / Nhà lao (n): Synonyms for prison/jail. These are more common in everyday modern Vietnamese than "ngục."
• Ngục thất (n, literary): A prison cell; a more literary term.
• Ngục tù (n): A compound word meaning imprisonment or prison life, often used in formal or literary contexts.
• Giam cầm (v): To imprison, to detain.

Synonyms

• Nhà tù: Prison, jail.
• Nhà giam: Jail, lockup.
• Trại giam: Detention camp, prison camp.
• Laо ngục (literary/compound): Prison.

Related Phrases / Compound Words

• Vượt ngục (v): To break out of prison, to escape from jail.
  • Bọn tù nhân đã lập kế hoạch vượt ngục. (The prisoners planned a jailbreak.)
• Lính gác ngục (n): Prison guard, jailer.
• Ngục tối (n): Dungeon.

noun

1. prison; jail; gaol
   • vượt ngục
     to break prison