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吃苦耐勞

简吃苦耐劳 · 繁吃苦耐勞

Mandarin · pinyin chī kǔ nài láo

hardworking and enduring hardships (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
耐: nài · endure, bear; resist; patient
勞: Look up this written character
劳: láo · labor, toil, do manual work

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–2 · chi1 ku3 nai4 lao2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

吃苦耐勞 · find source passages ↗ · 吃苦耐劳 · find source passages ↗

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to endure hardships and work hard

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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