Japanese symbol for “difficulty”
困難
こんなん
Romaji: konnan
difficulty; hardship; trouble; distress
In Japanese, difficulty is 困難, read こんなん (konnan).
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.
Meanings
- adj-na, n difficulty; hardship; trouble; distress
- adj-na, n infeasibility; inability (to carry out)
Kanji and stroke order
Other Japanese words for “difficulty”
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 障害 | しょうがい shougai | obstacle; impediment; hindrance |
| 難易 | なんい nan'i | (relative) difficulty |
| 難 | なん nan | difficulty; trouble; hardship |
| 苦労 | くろう kurou | trouble; hardship; difficulty |
| 問題 | もんだい mondai | trouble; problem; inconvenience |
Related words
Words that share a kanji.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 貧困 | ひんこん hinkon | poverty; penury; need |
| 困る | こまる komaru | to be troubled; to have difficulty; to be in a fix |
| 困惑 | こんわく konwaku | bewilderment; perplexity; embarrassment |
| 困窮 | こんきゅう konkyuu | poverty; need; destitution |
| 困憊 | こんぱい konpai | exhaustion; fatigue |
| 難しい | むずかしい muzukashii | difficult; hard; troublesome |
| 避難 | ひなん hinan | taking refuge; finding shelter; evacuation |
| 非難 | ひなん hinan | criticism; blame; censure |
See also: Chinese symbol for “difficulty”.
Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.