酷 meaning and stroke order
Ruthless; strong (e.g. of wine); (loanword) cool
How to write 酷, stroke by stroke
14 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 酷
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- ruthless
- strong (e.g. of wine)
- (loanword) cool
- hip
How 酷 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Wine.
酉 gives the meaning and 告 hints at the sound.
Radical: 酉 (wine), shared by 67 characters on this site.
How to remember 酷
酷 has 酉 (wine jar) on the left and 告 (gào, to tell) on the right as the sound hint. Picture wine so strong it tells you right away, and you get the idea of intense, harsh, or strong.
In modern speech 酷 (kù) is most often a loanword meaning cool or hip, as in 太酷了 (tài kù le). In formal words it keeps the old sense of harsh or extreme, as in 残酷 (cánkù) and 酷热 (kùrè). Example: 这件衣服真酷。(Zhè jiàn yīfu zhēn kù.) This piece of clothing is really cool.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes mix up 酷 with 酪 (lào, cheese or curd), which shares the 酉 side but has 各 on the right. Also remember that 酷 does not mean cold in temperature; for that use 冷 (lěng) or 凉 (liáng).
Common words with 酷
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
酷 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 酷
How many strokes are in 酷?
酷 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 酷 mean?
酷 (kù) means ruthless; strong (e.g. of wine); (loanword) cool. A common word with it is 残酷 (cánkù), meaning "cruel; harsh; merciless".
How do you pronounce 酷?
酷 is pronounced kù, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 酷?
The radical of 酷 is 酉, which carries the idea of "wine". Dictionaries list 酷 under this radical.
Is 酷 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 酷 is part of the HSK 6 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 酷 mean cool?
It was chosen to sound like the English word cool, so the slang meaning is a sound loan. It fits nicely because the character already carried a sense of intensity.
Is 酷 always positive?
No. On its own in casual speech it usually praises something as cool, but in compounds like 残酷 (cánkù, cruel) and 酷刑 (kùxíng, torture) it is clearly negative. Context and the word it appears in tell you which sense is meant.