DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

吃苦頭

简吃苦头 · 繁吃苦頭

Mandarin · pinyin chī kǔ tou

to suffer
to suffer for one's actions
to pay dearly
to burn one's fingers

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Characters in this entry

吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
头: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–5 · chi1 ku3 tou5

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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.

吃苦頭 · find source passages ↗ · 吃苦头 · 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.

verb

(verb-object) to suffer; to endure hardship; to pay for one's actions

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

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