Chinese symbol for “chore”

苦差

kǔ chāi

hard task; difficult mission; arduous and unrewarding undertaking; drudgery

The closest CC-CEDICT match for chore is 苦差 (kǔ chāi), defined as: hard task; difficult mission; arduous and unrewarding undertaking; drudgery; grind; chore.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

苦 kǔ

bitter; hardship, suffering

radical 140 ⾋ · 9 strokes

差 chāi

difference, gap; almost, nearly; in error; an officer

radical 48 ⼯ · 10 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 苦差.

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
差异 (差異)	chā yì	difference; discrepancy
差不多	chà bu duō	almost; nearly

See also: Japanese symbol for “chore”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.