poverty-stricken / poor
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Results for “苦”
179 results
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Exact character matches appear first. For otherwise comparable matches, frequency in film and television subtitles helps determine order. Direct English-definition matches and prefix matches also affect ranking. Word length and the availability of usage notes do not improve rank.
Frequency data: Cai & Brysbaert, SUBTLEX-CH (2010), Creative Commons Attribution. The data includes word forms with at least 10 occurrences in an older subtitle sample. It does not provide current frequency or HSK levels. Absence from the sample does not establish that a word is rare. Names, variants and restricted readings identified in the source appear after general-use entries within the same match type.
to take a lot of trouble (idiom) / painstaking / at the cost of a lot of effort
solitary and impoverished (idiom)
pain and difficulties / suffering (of the people)
to toil / hard work
to be born under an ill star
slightly bitter
erhua variant of 苦不唧[]
to suffer unspeakable misery / indescribably painful / hellish
to find joy in sorrows (idiom) / to enjoy sth in spite of one's suffering
(old) the family of the victim in a murder case / (Tw, HK) victim (of a crime, misfortune etc) / (Tw) (coll.) person who bears the burden while others benefit
hard job / arduous task
torture / corporal punishment (traditionally involving mutilation or amputation)
hard work / laborious effort / painstaking work
toil / hard work
liquorice (Sophora flavescens), with roots used in TCM
lit. bitter taste (cf good medicine tastes bitter 良藥苦口|良药苦口) / fig. earnestly (of warning, advice)
earnest and well-meaning advice (idiom) / to persuade patiently
bitter taste / bitterness
to have difficulty getting by / to struggle (financially etc)
affliction
grievance / dire straits
(idiom) great bitterness and deep hatred / deeply ingrained long-standing resentment
bitter cold
see 苦差[]
to work hard
forced labor / corvée / penal servitude
treat harshly
to make painstaking efforts (idiom) / after much trouble / to work hard at sth
to think hard / bitter thoughts / to pour out one's sufferings
(idiom) to think deeply / to rack one's brains
wretched situation / plight / wretched / miserable
to suffer from (a disadvantage)
hard times
amygdalin
underlying cause of poverty
chinaberry (Melia azedarach)
wretched state / miserable plight
bitter work / sweated labor
erhua variant of 苦活[]
Definitions from CC-CEDICT · 125,326 source records · Release 2026-10-27