残酷

残酷 cánkù

Brutal

残酷 in a sentence HSK 6 繁體 殘酷 canku

What 残酷 means

  1. Brutal

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 残酷 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 残酷 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

残酷 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

残
cán
Criple (cruel - remnant)
酷
kù
Ruthless (cruel - extremely)

Words that share a character with 残酷

How to write 残酷

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 残酷 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

残酷 in a sentence

战争的现实比想象中更残酷。
Zhànzhēng de xiànshí bǐ xiǎngxiàng zhōng gèng cánkù.
The reality of war is crueller than one imagines.
竞争很残酷,但也很公平。
Jìngzhēng hěn cánkù, dàn yě hěn gōngpíng.
The competition is brutal, but it is also fair.

Every sentence on this site that uses 残酷 is collected on the 残酷 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 残酷

What does 残酷 mean in English?

残酷 is pronounced cánkù and means Brutal.

How do you pronounce 残酷?

残酷 is cánkù in pinyin — written canku without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 残酷?

残酷 is written with 2 characters: 残 (cán) Criple (cruel - remnant), 酷 (kù) Ruthless (cruel - extremely). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

How is 残酷 written in traditional Chinese?

殘酷. The simplified form 残酷 is used in mainland China and Singapore; 殘酷 is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are pronounced cánkù.

Is 残酷 an HSK word?

Yes — 残酷 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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