Chinese word dictionary

痛苦

tòngkǔ · pain; suffering; painful; CL:個|个[ge4]

Practice word

Word information

Simplified痛苦

Traditional痛苦

Pinyintòngkǔ

Part of speech形

HSK 3.05

HSK 2.05

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

痛tòng

ache, pain; bitterness, sorrow; deeply, thoroughly

苦kǔ

bitter; hardship, suffering

How to learn 痛苦

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.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

头痛tóutòng

to have a headache

辛苦xīnkǔ

exhausting; hard; tough; arduous; to work hard; to go to a lot of trouble; hardship(s)

艰苦jiānkǔ

difficult; hard; arduous

酸甜苦辣suān-tián-kǔ-là

lit. sour, sweet, bitter and spicy (idiom); fig. all kinds of flavors; the joys and sorrows of life

疼痛téngtòng

pain; (of a body part) to be painful; to be sore; to hurt; (of a person) to be in pain

痛快tòngkuài

delighted; to one's heart's content; straightforward; also pr. [tong4 kuai5]