The kanji 苦: meaning, readings and stroke order
苦
- Meaning
- painful, bitter
- On reading
- ク ku
- Kun reading
- くる(しい) kurushii、くる(しむ) kurushimu、くる(しめる) kurushimeru、にが(い) nigai、にが(る) nigaru
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 艸 grass
- Level
- Level 3 · grade 3
Stroke order
Meaning in other languages
- Vietnamese
- khổ sở, đắng (khổ)
- Japanese
- くるしい。にがい。
- Korean
- 괴롭다, 쓰다 (고)
- Chinese
- 痛苦、苦
Readings, words and example sentences
ク ku · on reading · less common
苦心
hard work, great effort
苦心して 作品を 仕上げました。
I worked very hard to finish my artwork.
くる(しい) kurushii · kun reading
苦しい
painful, hard
走りすぎて 息が 苦しく なりました。
I ran too much, and it got hard to breathe.
くる(しむ) kurushimu · kun reading
苦しむ
to suffer
重い 病気で 苦しんで います。
He is suffering from a serious illness.
くる(しめる) kurushimeru · kun reading · less common
苦しめる
to make someone suffer
人を 苦しめては いけません。
You must not make other people suffer.
にが(い) nigai · kun reading
苦い
bitter
この 薬は とても 苦いです。
This medicine is very bitter.
にが(る) nigaru · kun reading · less common
苦る
to look sour, to frown
苦り切った 顔を して います。
He has a very sour look on his face.
Practise writing 苦 in the app
In Dino Kids your child writes 苦 with a finger and every stroke is checked, then takes the Level 3 practice test. Free, no ads, no in-app purchases.
Readings, radicals: Kanjium, KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); strokes: KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); Korean, simplified forms: Unicode Unihan. Meanings, sentences: Dino Kids (CC0). See Licences.