苦労
Meaning in Englishhardship, trouble, effort
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
苦労 means the experience of hardship and the exertion needed to overcome obstacles. It describes sustained effort, struggle, and perseverance in pursuing a goal, often accompanied by patience and resilience in the face of difficulties.
Main meanings
- Hardship endured in pursuing a goal (苦労を重ねる, kurou o kasaneru)
- Significant effort or toil required by a task (苦労が多い, kurou ga ooi)
- Emotional strain or frustration arising from challenging circumstances (苦労する場面, kurou suru bamen)
How to use it
苦労 is used to describe the personal experience of hardship or the effort involved in tasks. Common constructions include 苦労する, 苦労が多い, 苦労が絶えない. It is appropriate in both formal and informal contexts, and is often used to acknowledge someone’s effort or to discuss the toll of a challenge.
Variants and close terms
- 苦難 (kunnan) — hardship
- 困難 (konnan) — difficulty
- 労苦 (rouku) — toil
Composition
- 苦 = suffering, hardship
- 労 = labor, effort
- Together they express hardship resulting from exertion
Etymology
苦 (suffering) + 労 (labor) combine to form 苦労, indicating hardship born of effort; the pronunciation kurou is the historical reading of the compound and has remained stable in modern Japanese.
Word class
noun; suru-verb (動詞)