苦 kǔ▶ đắng

Stroke order

苦 is written in 8 strokes.

• 苦

Senses

1. bitter
2. hardship
3. pain
4. to suffer
5. to bring suffering to
6. painstakingly

Example sentences

• 这杯咖啡太苦了。Zhè bēi kāfēi tài kǔ le.This cup of coffee is too bitter.
• 他小时候的日子过得很苦。Tā xiǎoshíhou de rìzi guò de hěn kǔ.His childhood days were very hard.

Related words

• 辛苦cứng, khó khăn
• 刻苦Chăm chỉ
• 痛苦Đau; nỗi đau
• 艰苦cứng, khó khăn
• 吃苦Khó khăn, gian khổ
• 苦涩đắng

苦 is pronounced kǔ and means “đắng”. You will meet it in HSK 4, a band of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi — the standard test of Chinese proficiency. Most learners can pick 苦 out of a list long before they can reach for it unprompted, and the gap between those two closes only with repeated recall. LexiTrail schedules the next sighting from how well you did on the last.