苛 (kē): severe, exacting

苛 (kē) is a Chinese character meaning “severe.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 可 (phonetic). It ranks #2795 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 苛 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. severe
  2. exacting

Etymology & Origin

苛

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹可 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 苛 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
苛刻adjectivekē kèharsh
苛求verbkē qiúdemanding
苛责verbkē zéto criticize harshly
苛捐杂税phrasekē juān zá shuìexorbitant taxation (idiom)
苛性adjectivekē xìngcaustic (chemistry)
严苛adjectiveyán kēsevere
苛性钠nounkē xìng nàsodium hydroxide NaOH
苛性钾nounkē xìng jiǎcaustic potash
苛捐nounkē juānexorbitant levies
9
Total compounds
89
As first character
11
As last character
0
As middle character

苛 appears in 9 compound words: 89 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 苛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

刻kè
0.5232,229 co-occurrences
严yán
0.5081,018 co-occurrences
捐juān
0.459362 co-occurrences
税shuì
0.445264 co-occurrences
烦fán
0.41748 co-occurrences
虐nüè
0.410100 co-occurrences
敛liǎn
0.40334 co-occurrences
涤dí
0.39614 co-occurrences
杂zá
0.394216 co-occurrences
酷kù
0.37996 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

苛捐杂税kējuānzáshuìHSK 7+

exorbitant taxes

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

苛字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

kē zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "苛" has different usages in different contexts.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

这源于榴莲苛刻的储运条件——常温下保鲜期较短,对运输时效、温控和转运流程要求极高。

zhè yuán yú 榴 lián kē kè de chǔ yùn tiáo jiàn — — cháng wēn xià bǎo xiān qī jiào duǎn , duì yùn shū shí xiào , wēn kòng hé zhuǎn yùn liú chéng yāo qiú jí gāo .

This is due to the stringent storage and transportation requirements for durians—they have a short shelf life at room temperature, which places extremely high demands on transportation timelines, temperature control, and transshipment processes.

IT之家Aug 2026

因为验证和测试的苛刻程度,才真正定义品质 。

yīn wéi yàn zhèng hé cè shì de kē kè chéng dù , cái zhēn zhèng dìng yì pǐn zhì .

It is the rigor of verification and testing that truly defines quality.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

为何要对这批古象牙开展严苛的保湿养护工作?

wéi hé yāo duì zhè pī gǔ xiàng yá kāi zhǎn yán kē de bǎo shī yǎng hù gōng zuò ?

Why is it necessary to carry out rigorous moisture-preservation maintenance on this collection of ancient ivory?

爱范儿Jul 2026

换个角度看,我们没有必要去苛责他的口音,或者嘲笑他的野心。

huàn gè jiǎo dù kàn , wǒ men méi yǒu bì yāo qù kē zé tā de kǒu yīn , huò zhě cháo xiào tā de yě xīn .

Looking at it from another perspective, there’s no need for us to criticize his accent or mock his ambition.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

也有观众呼吁大家放平心态理性看待作品,不必一味拿巅峰时期的经典来苛求现在的周星驰。

yě yǒu guàn zhòng hū xū dà jiā fàng píng xīn tài lǐ xìng kàn dài zuò pǐn , bù bì yī wèi ná diān fēng shí qī de jīng diǎn lái kē qiú xiàn zài de zhōu xīng chí .

Some viewers have also called on everyone to keep an open mind and view the work rationally, rather than holding the current Stephen Chow to the same exacting standards as the classics from his prime.

Tatoeba

我在慢慢习惯这苛刻的气候。

Wǒ zài mànmàn xíguàn zhè kēkè de qìhòu.

I am slowly adjusting to the harsh climate here.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced kē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 苛 (kē) mean in Chinese?
苛 (kē) primarily means "severe." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2795 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 苛 and 阿?
苛 (kē) and 阿 (ā) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 阝 (same 可 component).
How many strokes does 苛 have?
苛 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 苛?
The radical associated with 苛 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 苛?
苛 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 可 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹可 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 苛?
Common words with 苛 include: 苛刻 (kē kè, "harsh"); 苛求 (kē qiú, "demanding"); 苛责 (kē zé, "to criticize harshly"); 苛捐杂税 (kē juān zá shuì, "exorbitant taxation (idiom)"); 苛性 (kē xìng, "caustic (chemistry)"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 苛 (kē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kē: 柯 ((literary) branch), 坷 (used in 坷垃), 可 (can, may), 克 (to be able to), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 苛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 苛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 苛 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.