Word
テレビ
Meaning in Englishtelevision / TV
Sentence
Related sentences
N4
テレビを見ながらご飯を食べます。
Terebi o mi nagara gohan o tabemasu.
I eat while watching TV.
N4
テレビを見てばかりいてはいけません。
Terebi o mite bakari ite wa ikemasen.
You must not just keep watching TV.
N5
私はあまりテレビを見ません。
Watashi wa amari terebi o mimasen.
I do not watch much TV.
N5
宿題の後でテレビを見ます。
Shukudai no ato de terebi o mimasu.
I watch TV after homework.
N5
私は毎晩テレビを見ます。
Watashi wa maiban terebi o mimasu.
I watch TV every night.
Word context
What it means
テレビ means television; it is a Japanese loanword used to name both the television set and the medium, depending on context.
Main meanings
- Device: the television set or receiver
- Medium: television as a broadcasting medium or service
- Casual usage: referring to watching television in daily speech
How to use it
Used as a noun for the TV device and for television programming; in casual speech it names everyday watching habits, in formal writing it appears in compounds like テレビ放送, テレビ局, テレビ番組.
Variants and close terms
- テレビ — terebi; standard form for the word
- テレビジョン — terebijon; older loanword, now rare
- TV — TV (romaji: TV; commonly seen in signage and media)
Etymology
gairaigo from television, adapted to Japanese phonology as テレビ, a clipped form common for the medium and the device
Origin
Introduced after the advent of television broadcasting in Japan in the early 1950s; regular NHK broadcasts began in 1953, popularizing the term テレビ as both device and medium.
Word class
noun (gairaigo, katakana loanword)