taru-adjective, adverb taking the 'to' particle
Literary たる adjective describing a deeply pitiful, tragic, or horrible state. Often used in written or formal contexts.
I was speechless at the miserable scene of the battlefield.
taru-adjective, adverb taking the 'to' particle
painstaking; with great effort
Almost exclusively used in the set phrase 苦心惨憺 (くしんさんたん), meaning 'after much painstaking effort'. Rarely appears independently.
See also: 苦心惨憺
After painstaking effort, they finally completed the new product.
苦心惨憺 is the idiomatic compound where 惨憺 appears in its 'painstaking' sense; 惨憺 alone is rarely used this way.
Standard kanji spelling; 憺 is a non-jōyō character.
Variant kanji form using 澹; less common than 惨憺.
From Chinese 慘澹 (cǎndàn), meaning 'gloomy' or 'miserable'. The Japanese reading さんたん is the on'yomi of the kanji.