phép vua thua lệ làng
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Sense 1
Meaning · English
even the monarch's law loses to a village's norms
Where it’s used:
Used
Toàn quốc & hải ngoại · Vietnam-wide & diaspora
Sources & notes
Imported from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); community review pending. source ↗
Sense 2
Meaning · English
local norms are so powerful that they can overrule any other authority
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
phép tắc địa phương mạnh mẽ có thể vượt qua bất kỳ quyền lực nào khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Common questions
What does “phép vua thua lệ làng” mean?
even the monarch's law loses to a village's norms
Is “phép vua thua lệ làng” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.