HSK 4 · Food

苦 kǔ “bitter” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 苦 means

  1. bitter
  2. hardship
  3. pain
  4. to suffer
  5. to bring suffering to
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • painstakingly

How to say 苦

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale苦kǔ3rd tone, dipping

苦 in a sentence

  1. 这颗苹果很苦。

    Zhè kē píngguǒ hěn kǔ.

    This apple is bitter.

    Sentence #13166961 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 他受不了咖啡的苦味。

    Tā shòubùliǎo kāfēi de kǔwèi.

    He can’t stand the bitter taste of coffee.

    Sentence #4760018 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 大家辛苦了！

    Dàjiā xīnkǔ le!

    Thanks for all your hard work, everyone!

    Sentence #13549383 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 苦 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 苦 (kǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
苦kǔbitter
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 古old · gǔSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with kǔ.

How to write 苦

苦 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

苦 (kǔ) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 苦 (kǔ). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 苦

Words with 苦

辛苦xīnkǔ · exhausting艰苦jiānkǔ · difficult刻苦kèkǔ · hardworking痛苦tòngkǔ · pain吃苦chīkǔ · to endure hardship苦涩kǔsè · bitter苦尽甘来kǔjìngānlái · after hardship comes happiness

More words: Food & Drink

干杯gānbēi · to drink a toast果汁guǒzhī · fruit juice饺子jiǎozi · dumpling烤鸭kǎoyā · roast duck矿泉水kuàngquánshuǐ · mineral water辣là · spicy葡萄pútao · grape巧克力qiǎokèlì · chocolate (loanword)

FAQs

苦 (kǔ) means “bitter” or “hardship”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it kǔ: kǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 苦 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ku with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 苦 from the suggestions. Typing ku into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
苦 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.