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Kanji for Pain

The kanji most commonly used for "Pain" are 痛、傷.

Kanji that mean Pain

  • pain, to hurt, intense

    Onyomi: tsuu Kunyomi: ita.i, ita.meru, ita.mu, itama.shii 12 strokes Jōyō

  • wound, to hurt

    Also associated with to grieve.

    Onyomi: shoh Kunyomi: ita.meru, ita.mu, kizu 13 strokes Jōyō

痛 is pain itself — the character in 痛い (“it hurts”, one of the first words every child and every visitor to Japan learns), 頭痛 (headache), 苦痛 (agony). The sickness radical 疒 wraps the character, which tells you its register: this is bodily, clinical pain, the kind a doctor asks you to rate.

傷 is the wound rather than the ache — a cut, an injury, and, tellingly, an emotional scar: 傷つく means to be hurt in feelings as naturally as in flesh, and 心の傷 is a wound of the heart. If the pain you mean is grief or damage carried inside, 傷 says it better than 痛.

Around these two sit 苦 (suffering, bitterness), 悲 (sorrow) and 煩 (torment, vexation) — each a different corner of the territory English covers with one word.

Words using Pain kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

  • 痛み いたみ Listen pain; ache; soreness
  • 重傷 じゅうしょう Listen serious wound; serious injury
  • 痛感 つうかん Listen feeling keenly; fully realizing
  • 傷者 しょうしゃ Listen wounded person; casualty; injured person
  • 腰痛 ようつう Listen lower back pain; lumbago
  • 軽傷 けいしょう Listen minor injury
  • 苦痛 くつう Listen pain; agony; suffering
  • 死傷者 ししょうしゃ Listen casualties; the killed and wounded
  • 頭痛 ずつう Listen headache

Before you use Pain kanji

Think twice before wearing 痛: to a Japanese reader it says "painful/ouch" with an almost medical flatness, and in slang 痛い also means "cringeworthy". If the idea is surviving hurt, 傷 (wound, scar) reads deeper, and a word like 無痛 ("without pain") or 苦楽 ("hardship and joy") frames it with intent.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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