愁眉苦脸
chóuméi-kǔliǎn · to look anxious (idiom); to look miserable
Character breakdown
Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.
How to learn 愁眉苦脸
Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.
When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.
Words with the same characters
Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.
face; CL:張|张[zhang1],個|个[ge4]
苦kǔbitter; hardship; pain; to suffer; to bring suffering to; painstakingly
辛苦xīnkǔexhausting; hard; tough; arduous; to work hard; to go to a lot of trouble; hardship(s)
艰苦jiānkǔdifficult; hard; arduous
脸色liǎnsècomplexion; look
酸甜苦辣suān-tián-kǔ-làlit. sour, sweet, bitter and spicy (idiom); fig. all kinds of flavors; the joys and sorrows of life