苦

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 艸 + phonetic 古 - bitter (as in bitter plants).

Han character

苦 (radical 140 艸+5, 11 strokes, cangjie input 廿十口 (TJR), four-corner 4460₄, composition ⿱艹古)

1. bitter
2. hardship, suffering

References

• KangXi: page 1023, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30797
• Dae Jaweon: page 1482, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3186, character 2
• Unihan data for U+82E6

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Cantonese

Hanzi

苦 (Jyutping fu2, Yale fu2)

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Japanese

Kanji

苦

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

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Readings

• Goon: く (ku)
• Kan’on: こ (ko)
• Kun: にがい (nigai), くるしい (kurushii), くるしむ (kurushimu)

Compounds

• 苦無 (くない, kunai): a kunai

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Korean

Hanja

苦 (go) (hangeul 고, revised go, McCune-Reischauer ko, Yale ko)

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Mandarin

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Hanzi

苦 (Pinyin gǔ (gu3), kǔ (ku3), Wade-Giles ku³, k'u³)

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Vietnamese

Han character

苦 (khổ, khủ, cỏ, cô, khó)

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