窮 means “cornered, destitute”

きゅう · kyuu

Also: hard up, suffer, perplexed

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

きわめる, きわまる, きわまり, きわみ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

キュウ, キョウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 15 strokes

The story

A body (身) bent like a bow (弓) under a cave roof (穴): picture someone crammed in with nowhere left to go. 窮 is being cornered, in space or in money: 窮屈 is cramped, 困窮 is hardship, and 窮鼠猫を噛む warns that a cornered rat bites the cat.

Used in 窮屈 (kyuukutsu, cramped/stiff), 困窮 (konkyuu, poverty/hardship), and 窮地 (kyuuchi, predicament)

More from Plenty & Want

• 飽 tire of
• 倹 frugal
• 貪 greedy
• 裕 ample
• 糧 provisions
• 剰 excess
• 乏 scarce
• 飢 starve
• 餓 starvation

Learn 窮 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.