Course Flashcards Sentences Texts Games
Tools
Hanzi
Characters & strokes
Dictionary
Search everything
LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online
LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online
Course Flashcards Sentences Texts Games
Hanzi
Characters & strokes
Dictionary
Search everything
Login Sign Up
Back to Dictionary
苦
kǔ
1. bitter
2. hardship
3. pain
4. to suffer
5. to bring suffering to
6. painstakingly
HSK 4 Very Common • Top 3% ✏️ 9 strokes

Character Breakdown (Single character)

苦
kǔ
bitter; hardship, suffering
HSK 4 8 丶

Compound Words (20)

苦瓜
kǔguā
bitter melon (bitter gourd, balsam pear, balsam apple, leprosy gourd, bitter cucumber)
苦竹
kǔzhú
bitter bamboo (Pleioblastus amarus)
苦涩
kǔsè
bitter and astringent
HSK 6
苦熬
kǔáo
to endure (years of suffering)
苦甘
kǔgān
bitter sweet
苦窑
kǔyáo
(slang) prison
苦楝
kǔliàn
chinaberry (Melia azedarach)
苦海
kǔhǎi
lit. sea of bitterness
苦命
kǔmìng
hard lot
苦味
kǔwèi
bitter taste
苦心
kǔxīn
painstaking effort
苦楚
kǔchǔ
suffering
苦根
kǔgēn
underlying cause of poverty
苦痛
kǔtòng
pain
甘苦
gānkǔ
good times and hardships
苦主
kǔzhǔ
victim's family (esp. in murder case)
苦活
kǔhuó
bitter work
艰苦
jiānkǔ
difficult
HSK 5
苦力
kǔlì
bitter work
苦刑
kǔxíng
torture

Metadata

Category
Chinese
HSK Character Level
4
Character Frequency Rank
633
Word Frequency Rank
2,181 of 84,292

LearnChinese.ai

Master Mandarin

Site

About Blog Accounts & Social Contact HSK 2.0 vs 3.0

Legal

Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support

❤️ Donate

© 2026 LearnChinese.ai. All rights reserved.