Chinese symbol for “spartan”
清苦
qīng kǔ
destitute but honest; poor and simple; spartan; austere
The closest CC-CEDICT match for spartan is 清苦 (qīng kǔ), defined as: destitute but honest; poor and simple; spartan; austere.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 清苦.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 清楚 | qīng chu | clear; distinct |
| 清理 | qīng lǐ | to clear up; to tidy up |
| 清晰 | qīng xī | clear; distinct |
| 高清 | gāo qīng | high definition (television etc); high fidelity (audio) |
| 清洁 (清潔) | qīng jié | clean; to clean |
| 清醒 | qīng xǐng | clear-headed; sober |
| 痛苦 | tòng kǔ | pain; suffering |
| 辛苦 | xīn kǔ | exhausting; hard |
See also: Japanese symbol for “spartan”.
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.