King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “deprivation”

困苦
kùn kǔ
deprivation; distressed; miserable

The closest CC-CEDICT match for deprivation is 困苦 (kùn kǔ), defined as: deprivation; distressed; miserable.

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

困 kùn
to surround; to besiege; surrounded, in distress; poor; tired, sleepy
radical 31 ⼞ · 7 strokes
苦 kǔ
bitter; hardship, suffering
radical 140 ⾋ · 9 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 困苦.

WordPinyinMeaning
困难 (困難)kùn nandifficult; challenging
贫困 (貧困)pín kùnimpoverished; poverty
困境kùn jìngpredicament; plight
困扰 (困擾)kùn rǎoto perplex; to disturb
困惑kùn huòbewildered; perplexed
被困bèi kùnto be trapped; to be stranded
痛苦tòng kǔpain; suffering
辛苦xīn kǔexhausting; hard

See also: Japanese symbol for “deprivation”.

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.