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苛刻

Mandarin · pinyin kē kè

harsh; severe; demanding

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Characters in this entry

苛: kē · small, petty; harsh, rigorous
刻: kè · carve, engrave; quarter hour

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4 · ke1 ke4

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ho1 hak1

Cantonese word readings for 苛刻. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

adj

harsh; demanding

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

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