HSK 5 · Adjectives

刻苦 kèkǔ “hardworking” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 刻苦 means

  1. hardworking
  2. assiduous

How to say 刻苦

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale刻kè4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale苦kǔ3rd tone, dipping

刻苦 in a sentence

  1. 他比您更刻苦。

    Tā bǐ nín gèng kèkǔ.

    He’s even more hardworking than you are.

    Sentence #2353494 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我知道你学得非常刻苦。

    Wǒ zhīdao nǐ xué de fēicháng kèkǔ.

    I know you’ve been studying very hard.

    Sentence #14013616 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 刻苦 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 刻 (kè) with each of its parts in a different colour
刻kèquarter
  • 亥part of the characterSound part
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāoMeaning part
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 刻苦

刻 8 strokes · 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.

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

Words related to 刻苦

Words with 刻

刻kè · quarter hour立刻lìkè · immediately时刻shíkè · time深刻shēnkè · profound片刻piànkè · a moment雕刻diāokè · to carve刻不容缓kèbùrónghuǎn · extremely urgent

Words with 苦

苦kǔ · bitter辛苦xīnkǔ · exhausting艰苦jiānkǔ · difficult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: Adjectives

绝对juéduì · absolute均匀jūnyún · even可靠kěkào · reliable可怕kěpà · awful客观kèguān · objective烂làn · rotten老实lǎoshi · honest乐观lèguān · optimistic

FAQs

刻苦 (kèkǔ) means “hardworking” or “assiduous”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it kèkǔ: kè with a 4th tone, then kǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 刻苦 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type keku with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 刻苦 from the suggestions. Typing keku into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
刻苦 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.