JLPT N3 · い-adjective

苦しい (kurushii)

苦しい (くるしい, kurushii) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “painful; difficult”. It appears in JLPT N3 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading: くるしい
Romaji: kurushii
Word class: い-adjective
Level: JLPT N3 (unofficial)

Meaning

painful; difficult; tough; hard · い-adjective
distressing; (psychologically) difficult; stressful; awkward (e.g. position) · い-adjective
straitened (circumstances); tight (financial situation); needy; struggling · い-adjective
strained (interpretation, explanation, etc.); lame (e.g. excuse); forced (e.g. smile); far-fetched · い-adjective
hard to do; unpleasant · suffix, い-adjective · after -masu stem of verb; often ぐるしい

Example sentences

苦しい、やめろ。

It's so painful. Stop it!

Tatoeba #179537

彼は過去の苦しい生活を黙想した。

He meditated on his past life of suffering.

Tatoeba #109174

彼の家族はかなり生活が苦しい。

His family is rather badly off.

Tatoeba #117939

Sentences from the Tatoeba project, linked to this word in JMdict.

Conjugation of 苦しい

い-adjective. Plain and polite forms below; try any other word in the Japanese verb conjugator.

Form	Japanese	Reading
Present	苦しい	くるしい kurushii
Negative	苦しくない	くるしくない kurushikunai
Past	苦しかった	くるしかった kurushikatta
Negative past	苦しくなかった	くるしくなかった kurushikunakatta
Te-form	苦しくて	くるしくて kurushikute
Adverb (~ku)	苦しく	くるしく kurushiku
Conditional (~ba)	苦しければ	くるしければ kurushikereba

Kanji in 苦しい

苦

suffering, trial, worryク・くる.しい・-ぐる.しい · 8 strokes

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 苦しい.

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

Source: JMdict entry 1244320 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.