苦

苦 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+6 in traditional Chinese, 艸+5 in mainland China and Japanese, 9 strokes in traditional Chinese, 8 strokes in mainland China and Japanese, cangjie input 廿十口 (TJR), four-corner 4460₄, composition ⿱艹古)

• 楛, 瘔

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

• Unihan data for U+2F996

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *kʰaːʔ, *kʰaːs): semantic 艸 (“grass”) + phonetic 古 (OC *kaːʔ) – bitter (as in bitter plants).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kaʔ (“bitter; salty”); compare Tibetan ཁ (kha, “bitter”), Tangut 𗎖 (*khie¹, “bitter”) (STEDT; Jacques, 2014). Within Chinese, cognate with 肝 (OC *kaːn, “liver”).

苦

1. bitter

   苦瓜  ―  kǔguā  ―  bittermelon

2. Alternative name for 荼 (tú, “bitter plant”).
3. difficult; painful; hard
4. hardship; suffering

   辛苦  ―  xīnkǔ  ―  laborious; hard; miserable

5. (regional) excessive
6. (transitive) to cause someone suffering; to give someone a hard time
7. to suffer from; to be handicapped by

   • 魏武曰：「人苦無足，既得隴右，復欲得蜀！」 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
     魏武曰：「人苦无足，既得陇右，复欲得蜀！」 [Literary Chinese, simp.]

     From: 648 CE, Fang Xuanling (lead editor), Book of Jin

     Wèi Wǔ yuē: “Rén kǔ wúzú, jì dé Lǒngyòu, fù yù dé Shǔ!” [Pinyin]

     (Emperor) Wu of Wei said: "Men suffer from insatiability, already having Longyou yet still wanting to get Shu!"

8. (obsolete or Eastern Min) to worry about; to be concerned about
9. strenuously; painstakingly

   苦笑  ―  kǔxiào  ―  to force a smile

• (difficult): 難過／难过 (nánguò)
• (excessive):

• (to suffer from): 苦於／苦于 (kǔyú)

• (antonym(s) of “bitter”): 甘 (gān), 甜 (tián)

苦

1. alternative form of 盬 (gǔ)

• “苦”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• “苦”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• “苦”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

1. bitter taste
2. pain, anguish, suffering, discomfort, hardship, worry
3. (Buddhism) dukkha, suffering

• Go-on: く (ku, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: こ (ko)
• Kun: くるしい (kurushii, 苦しい, Jōyō)、くるしむ (kurushimu, 苦しむ, Jōyō)、くるしめる (kurushimeru, 苦しめる, Jōyō)、くるしみ (kurushimi, 苦しみ)、くるしむめる (kurushimumeru, 苦しむめる)、にがい (nigai, 苦い, Jōyō)、にがむ (nigamu, 苦む)、にがみ (nigami, 苦み)、にがめる (nigameru, 苦める)、にがる (nigaru, 苦る, Jōyō)、はなはだ (hanahada, 苦だ)

From Middle Chinese 苦 (khu^X, “suffering”).

• (Tokyo) く [kúꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [kɯ̟]

苦(く) • (ku) 

1. suffering
2. (Buddhism) dukkha

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ko̞]
• Phonetic hangul: [고]

Wikisource

苦 (eumhun 괴로울 고 (goeroul go))

1. hanja form^? of 고 (“suffering, pain”)

• 고민 (苦悶, gomin, “worry”)
• 고통 (苦痛, gotong, “pain”)

• 𦹵
• 𦹯

苦: Hán Việt readings: khổ
苦: Nôm readings: cỏ, khó, khủ, khổ, cô

• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)