(kǔ)

bitter; hardship; suffering; painstaking

How 苦 is written

Strokes
8
Radical
— grass
Traditional
Simplified
(unchanged)

Components

Common words using 苦

痛苦 tòngkǔ
pain; suffering; painful
辛苦 xīnkǔ
hard; exhausting; with much toil
何苦 hékǔ
why bother?; is it worth the trouble?
刻苦 kèkǔ
hardworking; assiduous
千辛萬苦 qiānxīnwànkǔ
to suffer untold hardships (idiom); trials and tribulations; with difficulty; after some effort
受苦 shòukǔ
to suffer; hardship
吃苦 chīkǔ
to bear; hardships
艱苦 jiānkǔ
difficult; hard; arduous
苦力 kǔlì
bitter work; hard toil; coolie (English is loan word), unskilled Chinese laborer in colonial times
苦命 kǔmìng
hard lot; bitter fate
苦工 kǔgōng
hard labor (in penal code); coolie
苦心 kǔxīn
painstaking effort; to take a lot of trouble; laborious at pains

苦 in a sentence

今天辛苦你了。

Jīntiān xīnkǔ nǐ le.

“You've worked hard today. (Thanks for your trouble)”

How common is 苦?

苦 is the 633rd most frequent character in written Chinese. Characters up to this rank account for about 80.8% of all running text.

Characters that appear with 苦

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