Word: 艰苦 (jiānkǔ) Traditional: 艱苦 艰苦 dictionary entry jiānkǔ difficult; hard; arduous Full dictionary entry for 艰苦 Example sentences using 艰苦 2 sentences, showing page 1 of 1. 生活很艰苦。 Shēnghuó hěn jiānkǔ. Life has been very hard. 这是一项艰苦的工作。 Zhè shì yí xiàng jiānkǔ de gōngzuò. This is painstaking work.