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苦心惨憺 (くしんさんたん) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Meanings 1
noun, noun or participle which takes 'suru', intransitive verb
taking great pains ; going to great lengths ; making strenuous efforts
yojijukugo (four-character idiom)
A yojijukugo describing the act of working through difficulties with painstaking effort and perseverance. Often used with する to mean 'to take great pains' or 'to struggle hard'.
After strenuous efforts, they finally found a solution.
Written forms 苦く 心しん 惨さん 憺たん
Standard kanji spelling for this yojijukugo.
苦く 心しん 惨さん 澹たん
Variant spelling using 澹 instead of 憺; less common but still encountered.
Kanji 惨 wretched, disaster, cruelty Similar words 悪あく 戦せん 苦く 闘とう 悪戦苦闘 emphasizes a hard-fought struggle against adversity, often with a sense of desperate fighting, while 苦心惨憺 focuses more on the painstaking, meticulous effort and mental strain involved.
努ど 力りょく 努力 is a general term for effort or endeavor, whereas 苦心惨憺 conveys a much stronger sense of struggling through difficulties with great care and perseverance.
Etymology A yojijukugo composed of 苦心 (hardship, pains) and 惨憺 (distressing, pitiful). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the combination expresses the idea of enduring great mental and physical strain while making painstaking efforts.
