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Word 2002 of 2920

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苦心

くしん

painstaking effort, taking great pains over something

By Nihongo PathUpdated

Examples

  1. 苦心のかいがあった。

    くしんのかいがあった。

    All that effort was worth it.

  2. この作品には作者の苦心のあとが見える。

    このさくひんにはさくしゃのくしんのあとがみえる。

    You can see the traces of the author's painstaking work in this piece.

  3. 資金を集めるのにずいぶん苦心したそうだ。

    しきんをあつめるのにずいぶんくしんしたそうだ。

    I hear they went to a great deal of trouble to raise the funds.

Common patterns

苦心する
to take great pains
苦心の作
a work created with great effort
苦心のかいがある
for one's efforts to pay off

Memory tip

苦労 is suffering and hardship in general; 苦心 is narrower — the mental effort of racking your brains to get something right, so it attaches to creative or technical work.

Kanji in this word

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What does 苦心 mean?