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苦衷

Mandarin · pinyin kǔ zhōng

secret trouble
sorrow
difficulties

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Characters in this entry

苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
衷: zhōng · heart, from bottom of one's heart

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · ku3 zhong1

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu2 cung1

Cantonese word readings for 苦衷. 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.

noun

troubles or grief that one finds difficult or too embarrassed to bring up

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

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