忍 Rěn

忍 is a compound ideograph written with the 心 (xīn) radical "heart" under the character 刃 (Rèn) "knife edge". This character visually demonstrates the experience of enduring hardship or painful situations (knife's edge above the heart).

忍 means to endure, suffer or tolerate and is found in words related to unpleasant experiences and feelings associated with enduring or tolerating hardships such as 忍耐 (rěn nài) "patience", 忍痛 (rěn tòng) "reluctance", 忍受 (rěn shòu) "endure", 容忍 (róng rěn) "tolerate", and 残忍 (cán rěn) "cruel". A person's ability to endure is often celebrated, praised and touted like a badge of honor. For example, enduring months of training or a rigorous trial, or like the New Horizons spacecraft enduring almost ten years of space travel (3+ billion miles) to send us detailed images of Pluto and one of its moons, Charon.

• Category: Phono-Semantic Compound
• Component Characters: 心 Xīn | "Heart" and

  刃 Rèn | "Knife Edge"