Chinese symbol for “hardship”
苦
kǔ
bitter; hardship; pain; to suffer
The closest CC-CEDICT match for hardship is 苦 (kǔ), defined as: bitter; hardship; pain; to suffer; to bring suffering to; painstakingly.
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
Other Chinese words for “hardship”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 辛苦 | xīn kǔ | exhausting; hard |
| 风浪 (風浪) | fēng làng | wind and waves; rough waters; (fig.) hardship |
| 忧患 (憂患) | yōu huàn | suffering; misery |
| 艰 (艱) | jiān | difficult; hard |
Related words
Other words that share a character 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 |
See also: Japanese symbol for “hardship”.
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.