苦 – suffering, trial, worry

8 strokesTaught in grade 3#623 in newspaper frequencyN4 vocabulary

The kanji 苦 means suffering, trial, worry, hardship, feel bitter, scowl. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ク (ku); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is くる.しい、-ぐる.しい、くる.しむ、くる.しめる、にが.い、にが.る (kurushii, gurushii, kurushimu, kurushimeru, nigai, nigaru). It is written with 8 strokes, under radical 艸 (no. 140).

Stroke order

Stroke order from KanjiVG. Practise others with the stroke order lookup.

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ク	ku
Kun’yomi	くる.しい	kurushii
Kun’yomi	-ぐる.しい	gurushii
Kun’yomi	くる.しむ	kurushimu
Kun’yomi	くる.しめる	kurushimeru
Kun’yomi	にが.い	nigai
Kun’yomi	にが.る	nigaru

A dot separates the kanji’s part from the okurigana (kana written after it), e.g. まな.ぶ → 学ぶ.

Radical and components

Radical: 艸 (Kangxi radical 140). Components: 口・十・艾.

Words using 苦

苦いにがいbitter (taste)苦痛くつうpain苦労くろうtrouble苦手にがてpoor (at)苦しいくるしいpainful苦しむくるしむto suffer苦くpain苦情くじょうcomplaint苦心くしんpainsご苦労様ごくろうさまthank you (for your hard work)見苦しいみぐるしいunsightly無茶苦茶むちゃくちゃnonsensical

Example sentences

私は苦いものが好きだ。

I have a fancy for bitter things.

Tatoeba #157543

このビールは苦い。

This beer tastes bitter.

Tatoeba #223286

このコーヒーは苦い味がする。

This coffee tastes bitter.

Tatoeba #223800

Kanji with the same radical

葉落英若蔵花薬芸葬著草薄芝薦華荒

Sources: KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0), Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). About the data.