Chinese Character Wiki
酷

kù

strong (wine), cool

Phonosemantic compound. 酉 represents the meaning and 告 represents the sound.

Components
酉 meaning component

酉  Meaning component

yǒu

  

wine

告 sound component

告  Sound component

gào

  

tell

Evolution

酷 Seal script Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
酷 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
酷 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
酷 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

酷  

kù

strong, stimulating; very; ruthless; strong (e.g. of wine); (loanword) cool; hip

Most common words with 酷
Freq.
Word
Meaning

酷

ruthless

残酷

cruel

冷酷

grim

酷似

to strikingly resemble

酷爱

to be keen on

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*kʰˤuk

khowk

kù

cruel


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 40.4773% of movies

958th most common character in movies

1867th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

14

Unicode

U+9177

Shuowen

“酷，酒厚味也。从酉，告聲。”


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