獄

• Physical Space: A prison, jail, or place of detention.
• Legal Proceeding: A lawsuit, a judicial case, or the state of being under official investigation.
• Specialized Contexts: In compounds such as 冤獄, it refers to wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice. In later Buddhist or religious texts, the term may refer to metaphysical "hell-prisons" and karmic retribution.

Almost exclusively a noun. It is not used as a verb meaning "to imprison."

• Vs. 訟 (sòng): While 訟 emphasizes the act of litigating or the dispute itself, 獄 refers to the formal case as an administrative or judicial entity.
• Vs. 囚 (qiú): 獄 is the place or the legal case; 囚 is the person (the prisoner).

Simplified variant: U+72F1.

To determine whether the glyph refers to a physical location or a legal process, examine the accompanying verbs:

• Verbs of motion (e.g., 入 "enter," 送 "send") typically indicate the physical facility ("prison/jail").
• Verbs of examination or resolution (e.g., 審 "try/examine," 處 "dispose of/handle") typically indicate the legal matter ("lawsuit/case").