苦 kǔ HSK3 bitter Definitions Defs Origin Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents Showing: painstakingly All meanings 27 kǔ 27 hardship 18bitter 6painstakingly 1to cause suffering 1to suffer 1 1 sentence for 苦 (kǔ — painstakingly) 他苦钻研了五年,终于取得了突破。 tā kǔ zuānyán le wǔ nián, zhōngyú qǔdé le tūpò. He studied hard for five years and finally made a breakthrough. Source: Dong Chinese Dictionary