U+72F1 "狱" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+72F1 "狱" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that primarily means "prison" or "jail," and it is composed of two radical components: the left side "犭" (quǎn, meaning dog or beast) and the right side "犬" (quǎn, also meaning dog), though this right component often functions as a phonetic indicator in its simplified form, while the traditional character "獄" includes "言" (speech) between two "犬" elements, reflecting an ancient concept of legal disputes guarded by dogs. In modern usage, this character appears in words like "监狱" (prison) and "地狱" (hell), and it carries connotations of confinement and judgment. It is encoded in the Unicode Standard under the CJK Unified Ideographs block, specifically for China, Japan, and Korea, and is widely used in written Chinese, Japanese (where it is pronounced "goku" or "yoku"), and Korean (pronounced "ok"), retaining its core meaning related to incarceration and restraint across these East Asian languages.