Kanshudo Component Builder
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By default the Component Builder shows the most common Joyo kanji components (ie, components which are themselves Joyo kanji, or which are used in at least 3 other Joyo kanji). Select an alternative set of components below.



For details of all components and their English names, see the Component collections.
Kanshudo Component Builder Help
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For detailed instructions, see the Component builder how to guide.
To find any kanji, first try to identify the components it is made up of. Once you have identified any component, search for it in any of three ways:
  1. Draw it in the drawing area
  2. Type the name in the text area
  3. Look for it in the list
Example: look up 漢
  • Notice that 漢 is made of several components: 氵 艹 口 夫
  • Draw any of these components (one at a time) in the drawing area, and select it when you see it
  • Alternatively, look for a component in the list. 氵 艹 口 each have three strokes; 夫 has four strokes
  • If you know the meanings of the components, type any of them in the text area: water (氵), grass (艹), mouth (口) or husband (夫)
  • Keep adding components until you can see your kanji in the list of matches that appears near the top.
Kanshudo Component Builder Drawing Help
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The Kanshudo Component Builder can recognize any of the 416 components listed in the chart below the drawing area. Tips:
  • Draw a component in the center of the area, as large as you can
  • Try to draw the component as it appears in the kanji you're looking up
  • Don't worry about stroke order or number of strokes
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部
Components

苦 means 'bitter'

Animation / stroke order not available.
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Strokes : 8    Frequency: 466   JLPT: N3    Usefulness: 3    Challenge set: 5    Grade: 3   Intermediate lesson: 25    Beginner lesson: -   Begins 98 words   Used in 194 words   Used in 42 names   Component in 1 kanji (0 Jōyō)
Jōyō (常用)
Common readings
On
   ク
Kun
   くるしい painful   くるしむ to suffer   くるしめる to torment   にがい bitter   にがる to feel bitter
Additional readings
Kun    -ぐるしい
Components
⿱  艹 (艸) grass  古 old  
Explore these components visually on The Kanji Map ⇗
See also
若 young  
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Most useful words by reading
In the most useful 10,000 words in Japanese, 苦 is used 12 times, read 3 ways.
Across all words in Japanese, 苦 is used 180 times, read 3 ways (with 2 variations).
ク : 125 words FIND ALL
troubles; hardships
(click the word to view an additional 2 forms, examples and links)
3
2
TEST
ク (read as ぐ) : 3 words FIND ALL
noun
worry; care; anxiety
9
TEST
にがい : 25 words FIND ALL
1. poor (at); weak (in); not very good (at)
2. dislike (of); difficult to deal with
3
2
TEST
くるしい : 22 words FIND ALL
1. painful; difficult; agonizing
2. needy; tight (budget); straitened (circumstances)  (see also: 苦しい懐)
(click the word to view an additional 3 meanings, examples and links)
3
3
TEST
くるしい (read as ぐる) : 5 words FIND ALL
TEST
Quick links
QUICK SEARCH WORD SEARCH KANJI SEARCH COMPONENT SEARCH Find kanji that refer to 苦
More information
Wiktionary ⇗ | Unicode.org ⇗ | Google Japan ⇗
Additional data
Henshall: 283 (originally: 264)  Joy o' Kanji : 264  Key to Kanji: 237 

Cascading kanji view

苦
ク   くるしい painful   くるしむ to suffer   くるしめる to torment   にがい bitter   にがる to feel bitter   
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3
古
コ   ふるい old   -ふるす to grow old   
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2
十
ジュウ   ジッ   と    とお ten   
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1
一
イチ   イツ   ひとつ    ひと- one   
1
丨
stick   
口
コウ   ク   くち mouth   
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2
艹
grass   
Problem with this kanji? Question or comment? Please CONTACT US.
Search results include information from a variety of sources, including Kanshudo (kanji mnemonics, kanji readings, kanji components, vocab and name frequency data, grammar points), JMdict (vocabulary), Tatoeba (examples), Enamdict (names), KanjiVG (kanji animations and stroke order), and Joy o' Kanji (kanji and radical synopses). Translations provided by Google's Neural Machine Translation engine. For more information see credits.
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