kù
strong (wine), cool
Phonosemantic compound. 酉 represents the meaning and 告 represents the sound.
Evolution

Seal script
Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 酷
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
ruthless | ||
cruel | ||
grim | ||
to strikingly resemble | ||
to be keen on |
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*kʰˤuk | khowk | kù | cruel |
Statistics
HSK level 6
Appears in 40.4773% of movies
958th most common character in movies
1867th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 14 |
Unicode | U+9177 |
Shuowen | “酷,酒厚味也。从酉,告聲。” |
Sources
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