苦 — suffering, trial, worry

にがい苦 suffering

Grade 3 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 8 strokes emotion

U+82E6 Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. Freq #623 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #239 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories.

Meanings

suffering
trial
worry
hardship
feel bitter
scowl

word

にが niga Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

苦(にが) い nigai bitter 苦(にが) 手(て) nigate weak point

く ku On'yomi On'yomi (音読み) — the Sino-Japanese reading, derived from Chinese pronunciation. Most commonly used in compound words (jukugo).

苦(く) ku suffering 苦(く) 労(ろう) kurou hardship 苦(く) 笑(しょう) kushou bitter smile ご苦(く) 労(ろう) gokurou trouble 苦(く) 戦(せん) kusen hard fight 苦(く) 情(じょう) kujou complaint 苦(く) 痛(つう) kutsuu pain 苦(く) 難(なん) kunan hardship

くる kuru Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

苦(くる) しい kurushii painful 苦(くる) しむ kurushimu to suffer 苦(くる) しみ kurushimi suffering 苦(くる) しめる kurushimeru to torment

Appears in idioms

良薬は口に苦し諺

good medicine is bitter to the mouth

四苦八苦四字熟語

four, suffering, eight, suffering

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Composed of

艹 grass

ふる古 old

Open in Atlas

Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

#140 艸 grass