柴米油盐 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (lit.) firewood, rice, oil and salt
• (fig.) life's daily necessities

Character by character

• 柴cháifirewood, faggots, fuel; surname
• 米mǐrice, millet, grain
• 油yóuoil, fat, grease, lard; oil paints
• 盐yánsalt

Idioms sharing a character

• 干柴烈火 gān chái liè huǒ
• 柴门小户 chái mén xiǎo hù
• 骨瘦如柴 gǔ shòu rú chái
• 生米熟饭 shēng mǐ shú fàn
• 米已成炊 mǐ yǐ chéng chuī
• 油光可鉴 yóu guāng kě jiàn
• 油然而生 yóu rán ér shēng
• 油盐不进 yóu yán bù jìn
• 油盐酱醋 yóu yán jiàng cù
• 添油加醋 tiān yóu jiā cù

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.