苦 · kǔ
bitter; hardship, suffering
Meanings & readings
Meaning & readings
bitter; hardship, suffering
- Mandarin
- kǔ
- Cantonese
- fu2
Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.
Readings in Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese
Readings recorded for 苦 in other language traditions. These are character-level records, not word translations or interchangeable pronunciations.
Japanese 日本語
Grouped by the source’s kana notation; no frequency ranking is implied.
On’yomi · katakana
Kun’yomi · hiragana
Katakana generally indicates on’yomi; hiragana generally indicates kun’yomi. The source does not identify everyday, rare, historical or name use per reading. Kana strings are preserved, including any written endings; consult a Japanese word entry for actual use.
Go deeperJisho ↗Wiktionary ↗
Source record & scope
Unicode Unihan 17.0.0 · kJapanese ↗ · provisional property
ク くるしい くるしむ くるしめる にがい にがる くるしみ はなはだKorean 한국어
Hanja readings · Hangul
Source codes are separated below. They are neither sounds nor tones; a character reading alone does not specify a whole word’s pronunciation.
Go deeperNaver Hanja ↗Wiktionary ↗
Reading sources explained
- 고
- KS X 1001 (0) · Educational Hanja (E)
Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
Character readings · Quốc ngữ
Vietnamese readings associated with this Han character. This field alone does not establish word meanings, current usage, or a complete account of Hán-Nôm reading traditions.
Go deeperHán Việt (Thi Viện) ↗Wiktionary ↗
Form & structure
Writing & identity
- Unicode
- U+82E6
- Radical
- 艸 · 140
- Strokes
- 8 · Unihan
- Residual
- 5
Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.
Stroke order
8 strokesModern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.
Graphical structure
How to read these symbols
⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.
BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.
Words & connections
Words using 苦
Character connections
No reverse component match in this collection.
Component roles · attributed
- 古 sound component · CJKVI analysis
Source analysis · 古聲
Line 4565 · ⿱艹古 · 古聲 · source reference 0120830
Source analyses, kept separate from modern IDS. CJKVI labels are not individually verified historical conclusions. Evidence & limits ↗
History & distinctions
Related forms
No simplified/traditional variant property is retained for this record.
Historical readings
- Middle Chinese
- khuX · 康杜 反切 · #1387
- Middle Chinese
- khuH · 苦故 反切 · #2357
Guangyun-based transcriptions · PHONO-ML · CC BY 4.0. These describe historical reading categories, not modern word pronunciation.
Source row & reading categories
CSV line 9841 · khuX = 遇開一上模溪 · khuH = 遇開一去模溪
Automatically generated in the source dataset; the authors checked a subset and acknowledge possible errors. All source readings are retained separately. Notation & method ↗
Sources & reference
Evidence & next depth
Retained Unihan properties
- kMandarin
- kǔ
- kCantonese
- fu2
- kDefinition
- bitter; hardship, suffering
- kTotalStrokes
- 8
- kRSUnicode
- 140.5
- kGradeLevel
- 2
- kTGH
- 2013:999
Readings across dictionaries
- Hanyu Da Zidian
- kǔ,gǔ,hù 53186.020
- Xiandai Hanyu · 1983
- kǔ 0653.090
- Tongyong Guifan · 2013
- kǔ 199.130
- Reading counts · XDHYPLCD
- kǔ(645)
Reference desk
- Fanqie spellings
- 康杜 苦故
- Kangxi positions
- 1023.160
- Guangyun positions
- 267.09 370.05
- GSR references
- 0049u
- Cangjie
- TJR
- Four-corner
- 4460.4