窮

音読おんよみ: キュウ

訓読くんよみ: きわまる・きわめる

画数かくすう: 15

部首ぶしゅ: 穴（あなかんむり）

Meaning

Poverty / Distress / Be driven to extremes / Reach a limit

  • 窮地きゅうち — desperate situation; being cornered
  • 窮屈きゅうくつ — cramped; constrained; tight
  • 窮乏きゅうぼう — extreme poverty; want
  • 困窮こんきゅう — hardship; dire need

With the cave radical on top, 窮 suggests being deep inside a confined space. From the image of having no room to move, it developed meanings like “reaching a limit,” “being cornered,” and “suffering hardship.”

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