苦 — Chinese character
苦
kǔ
bitter; hardship, suffering
- Pinyin
- kǔ
- Radical
- 140 ⾋ (Grass)
- Strokes
- 9
- Components
- 艹 古
- Formation
- pictophonetic — grass; meaning component 艹; sound component 古
- Japanese
- 苦 as a kanji
Common words with 苦
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 痛苦 | tòng kǔ | pain; suffering |
| 辛苦 | xīn kǔ | exhausting; hard |
| 苦难 (苦難) | kǔ nàn | suffering |
| 艰苦 (艱苦) | jiān kǔ | difficult; hard |
| 苦恼 (苦惱) | kǔ nǎo | vexed; distressed |
| 受苦 | shòu kǔ | to suffer hardship |
| 贫苦 (貧苦) | pín kǔ | poverty-stricken; poor |
| 刻苦 | kè kǔ | hardworking; assiduous |
| 苦头 (苦頭) | kǔ tou | sufferings |
| 苦苦 | kǔ kǔ | strenuously; persistently |
| 困苦 | kùn kǔ | deprivation; distressed |
| 苦涩 (苦澀) | kǔ sè | bitter and astringent; pained |
English words written with 苦
苦 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: I Ching 2 · Mencius 2 · Zhuangzi 21
- Hexagram 60
- Mencius 1A.7
- Mencius 6B.15
- Zhuangzi Transcendental Bliss
- Zhuangzi Man Among Men
- Zhuangzi On Letting Alone
- Zhuangzi The Tao of God
- Zhuangzi Perfect Happiness
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.