DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

苦行僧

Mandarin · pinyin kǔ xíng sēng

ascetic monk

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
行: xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
僧: sēng · Buddhist priest, monk; san of Sanskrit sangha

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–2–1 · ku3 xing2 seng1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

苦行僧 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(Hinduism) sadhu
(figuratively) person that abstains from indulgence and lives an austere life; ascetic person

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack