苟 is a bound form (b.f.) — it cannot stand alone as a word. In literary or formal Chinese it has two main uses: 1) as a root meaning 'careless' or 'negligent', appearing in compounds like 不苟言笑 ('reserved, not given to idle talk') and 苟且 ('drifting along, perfunctory'); 2) as a classical conjunction meaning 'if', used in written or formal contexts (e.g. 苟无他人相助 'if there is no help from others'). Think of it as a building block in higher-level vocabulary rather than a standalone word.