テスト
Meaning in Englishtest, exam
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
テスト (tesuto) means "test" in Japanese: a general term for an examination, trial, or assessment used to check knowledge, function, or performance.
Main meanings
- 1. School or academic examinations used to evaluate student learning and grades.
- 2. Diagnostic checks in medicine or laboratory settings to detect conditions or measure markers.
- 3. Product, quality-control, or engineering trials to verify functionality and performance.
- 4. Software and technical testing (unit tests, integration tests) in IT and development contexts.
- 5. Informal sense meaning a trial run or 'giving something a try' in everyday speech.
How to use it
Used broadly in educational, medical, industrial, and technological contexts; neutral in formality and common in both spoken and written Japanese; often combined with する (suru) to form a verb phrase for conducting a test, and frequently appears in announcements, schedules, reports, and everyday conversation.
Variants and close terms
- 試験 (shiken) — formal examination, often for certification or official assessment.
- 検査 (kensa) — inspection or medical/test screening with an emphasis on checking or diagnosis.
- チェック (chekku) — check, informal verification often used in casual or technical contexts.
- テストする (tesuto suru) — to test (verb form using suru).
Etymology
テスト (tesuto) is a loanword from English test; Japanese phonotactics insert vowels to break consonant clusters and append a final vowel, transforming /tɛst/ into the katakana rendering to match syllable structure.
Origin
The concept of formal testing entered Japan with modern Western education and administration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the katakana テスト (tesuto) became common through 20th-century schooling, industry, and scientific practice as Western-style assessments and quality control spread.
Word class
noun (名詞, often used with する as a サ変名詞)