Kanji1 / 8
苦 kanji
suffering, trial, worry, hardship, feel bitter, scowl
- JLPT level
- N3 (unofficial)
- First appears in
- N4 vocabulary
- Strokes
- 8
- School grade
- Grade 3 (elementary school)
On readings
ク
Kun readings
くるしい-ぐるしいくるしむくるしめるにがいにがる
Words with 苦
LevelWord & meaningActions
- —生活苦hardships of life (esp. due to lack of money); life's struggles
- —苦味素bitter principle; bitter-tasting substance
- —苦鉄質mafic
- —寒苦鳥cold-suffering bird; kankuchō; imaginary bird said to live in the Himalayas who forgets the cold of night as soon as morning comes; (lazy) person who is poor at practicing asceticism; person unlikely to reach satori
- —借金苦pain of being in debt
- —受苦圏harm zone; people who will suffer the negative effects of new public facilities, infrastructure, etc. (e.g. pollution)
- —二重苦double torture; double pain; double hardship; double whammy
- —四重苦four-fold hardship; quadruple whammy
- —受苦日Good Friday
- —苦労話story of one's struggles; hardship story
- —悪戦苦闘hard fighting; hard struggle; fighting against heavy odds
- —苦にするto worry
- —苦になるto be bothered (by something); to suffer
- —刻苦勉励being arduous; working diligently enduring hardships
- —四苦八苦being in dire distress; being hard put to it; being hard pressed (for money); the four and eight kinds of suffering (birth, old age, disease, death, parting from loved ones, meeting disliked ones, not getting what one seeks, pains of the five skandha)
- —千辛万苦many hardships
- —粒々辛苦toil and moil; working assiduously for; tireless hard work; painstaking labor (labour)
- —艱難辛苦trial and tribulation; hardships; privations; difficulties
- —苦もなくeasily; without effort
- —苦心惨憺taking great pains