TongTong
Sign in

克服 (kè fú) — to overcome, to conquer (difficulties, obstacles, weaknesses)

Definition

克服 means to actively work past an internal difficulty (fear, weakness, bad habit). It is more about self-mastery than 战胜, which focuses on defeating an external opponent.

verb
to overcometo conquer (difficulties, obstacles, weaknesses)
Easily confused

Examples

  • ，克服。
    Zhǐ yào nǔ lì, méi yǒu kè fú bù liǎo de kùn nan.
    As long as you work hard, there is no difficulty you can't overcome.
  • 克服，。
    Tā kè fú le jǐn zhāng de qíng xù, zǒu shàng wǔ tái.
    He overcame his nervousness and walked onto the stage.
  • 克服。
    Zhè ge tuán duì chéng gōng kè fú le jì shù nán tí.
    The team successfully overcame the technical challenge.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

克kèconquer
服fúsubmit

The conquering sense of 克 and the submitting sense of 服 combine to mean overcoming.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 克 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
凡凡fántray
Sound part声符shēngfú
𠬝
𠬝𠬝服fú
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 服, the part 𠬝 was the original picture for 'to subdue'; the added left part 凡, a tray, later changed shape.

Open 服 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 5Success & Failure5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

Browse more HSK 5 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.