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I have seen these three characters forming the "same" words (I cannot think of a better way to phrase this), such as

惡夢 vs 噩夢

and

惡運 vs 噩運 vs 厄運

As I tried googling for the difference, I find different opinions on their meaning/usage – some argue that they are interchangeable; others claim that they are slightly different. Below is what I thought to be the best explanation I have found by far:

噩: 不祥.
厄: 灾难.
恶: 恶劣.

不祥不一定就会发生灾难, 但灾难必定是不祥的, 而这两者都很恶劣.

However, the explanation still sounds rather vague to me. In explicit, how do these characters differ in meaning/usage?

Thanks in advance!

Thomas Hsieh
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    http://www.jxteacher.com/zhaoxiaoli/column57436/d52fe790-21d4-4c7c-a529-39bf621a6086.html “恶梦”侧重梦的凶险、不祥，强调梦的内容；“噩梦”侧重梦的惊恐，强调心理感受。如“那场~至今难忘”，用前者为好；“我从~中惊醒”，以后者为宜。 – Mou某 Apr 19 '15 at 07:30
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    http://www.360doc.com/content/13/0715/09/3918785_300060620.shtml 1、厄运 比较官方的语言 2、噩运 侧重不幸（凄惨）的命运，一般伴随着人的伤亡和疾病 3、恶运 不常用，指坏的运气，不一定是不幸的 – Mou某 Apr 19 '15 at 07:35
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    I am a Chinese, but I can't tell the difference. – S.C. Apr 21 '15 at 09:23
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    I'm a Chinese, I use "厄运" because this is the only one in my pinyin input method. and by the way, many questions here let me rethink if i'm really a Chinese. – Shiji.J Apr 26 '15 at 03:01
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    [è] using 爱词霸、小马词典。顺便一提＂汉语水平考试词典＂没有＂噩、厄＂条目，只有＂恶＂ 噩: 1. （形）凶恶惊人的。shocking ； upsetting compounds：噩梦、噩耗、噩运 variant of 厄运 厄: 2. （灾难；困苦） adversity; disaster; hardship 动1. （受困） be in distress; be stranded The fishing boat was caught in a storm. 渔船厄于风暴。 厄widely used for transliterating foreign names e。g。厄立特里亚 恶: <名> （很坏的行为； 犯罪的事情） evil ； vice ； wickedness <形> fierce ； ferocious ； bad ； evil – user6065 Apr 28 '15 at 13:25

1 Answers1

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Did you know? 厄 is a 象形字, a pictogram. It is said that about 4 percent of the characters in the Chinese are derived directly from individual pictograms, but most of the characters are pictophonetics.

厄 is akin to 困厄 or 遭遇困境, such as "being between a rock and a hard place," or being in difficult situation.

There's not much to say about 恶 really. In my opinion, it pertains to 凶恶 stuff, usually brought on as a consequence of one's own actions (akin to "karma") that unrelated to one's fortune (运程).

噩 is as other have described in the comments an adjective meaning 惊人的 or 可怕的; basically something frightening or shocking.

Krazer
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