How to Write 酷 (kù) — Meaning “cool”

Imagine a cool person holding a wine jar (酉) and telling everyone (告) how cool they are. This connects the radical for wine to the action of announcing, helping you recall that 酷 means 'cool.'

Write the left radical 酉 first (7 strokes) with a narrow shape, then the right part 告 (7 strokes) wider. Be careful not to make the left side too big; the right side should extend slightly below. A common mistake is to mix up the horizontal strokes in 告 — it has four horizontal strokes, with the top two shorter than the bottom two.

The similar characters all share the wine radical 酉. 酡 (tuó) means 'flushed from drinking' and has 它 on the right. 酢 (zuò) means 'sour' or 'vinegar' and has 乍 on the right. 酷 alone has 告 and means 'cool' in modern slang, though it also appears in words like 残酷 (cruel) with a different meaning.

酷 is commonly used as slang for 'cool,' borrowed from English, especially among young people — for example, 他很酷 (tā hěn kù) means 'he is very cool.' It also appears in formal words like 酷暑 (kù shǔ, intense summer heat) and 残酷 (cán kù, cruel). Remember that in formal contexts, 酷 does not mean 'cool'; that meaning is informal and modern.

Common words containing 酷 include: 酷 (kù) — cool; 酷暑 (kù shǔ) — intense summer heat; 残酷 (cán kù) — cruel; brutal.