Chinese symbol for “sufferings”
苦头
kǔ tou
Traditional: 苦頭
sufferings
The closest CC-CEDICT match for sufferings is 苦头 (kǔ tou), defined as: sufferings.
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “sufferings”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 痛痒 (痛癢) | tòng yǎng | pain and itch; sufferings |
| 病苦 | bìng kǔ | pains (of illness); sufferings (esp. in Buddhism) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 苦头.
| 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 |
| 头发 (頭髮) | tóu fa | hair (on the head) |
| 街头 (街頭) | jiē tóu | street |
See also: Japanese symbol for “sufferings”.
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.