# 苦 — Suffering

Frequency rank 455 / 2,608 in published Japanese.

Frequent enough that you will keep running into it once you read past headlines.

More common than 済 (Come To An End), less common than 助 (Help).

- On’yomi: く
- Kun’yomi: くる、にが
- Radical: 艸 Grass (Kangxi 140)
- Frequency path: Level IV of XX

Flowers (艹) bloom on top of something old (古) and rotten — the stench of old flowers is pure suffering.

In words:

- 苦い にがい — bitter
- 苦しむ くるしむ — to suffer,to groan,to be worried
- 苦しい くるしい — painful,difficult

[Study 苦](https://app.kanjidrift.com/study?kanji=%E8%8B%A6)

[← Rank 454: 助 (Help)](https://kanjidrift.com/frequency/助.md) · [Rank 456: 済 (Come To An End) →](https://kanjidrift.com/frequency/済.md)

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