| term | pronunciation | English |
|---|
| 困苦 | こんく | hardship |
| 苦い | にがい | bitter |
| 苦情 | くじょう | complaint, troubles, objection |
| 苦心 | くしん | pain, trouble |
| 苦痛 | くつう | pain, agony |
| 苦しい | くるしい | painful, difficult |
| 苦しむ | くるしむ | to suffer, to groan, to be worried |
| 苦労 | くろう | troubles, hardships |
| 苦手 | にがて | poor (at), weak (in), dislike (of) |
| 刻苦勉励 | こっくべんれい | being arduous, working diligently enduring hardships |
| 苦しみ | くるしみ | pain, anguish, distress, suffering, hardship |
| 苦しめる | くるしめる | to torment, to harass, to inflict pain |
| 苦境 | くきょう | trouble, crisis, predicament, squeeze, pinch |
| 苦悩 | くのう | suffering, distress, affliction, anguish, agony, trouble |
| 苦慮 | くりょ | rack one's brains |
| 苦戦 | くせん | hard fight, close game |
| 苦杯 | くはい | bitter experience (ordeal) |
| 苦渋 | くじゅう | bitterness, mortification, difficulty in understanding, distress, affliction |
| 苦肉の策 | くにくのさく | last resort, desperate measure taken under pressure of necessity |
| 苦衷 | くちゅう | distress |
| 辛苦 | しんく | hardship, toil, trouble |