パン

Meaning in English

bread

Sentence

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Dictionary

Word context

What it means

パン (pan) means "bread" in Japanese; it denotes baked flour-based products such as loaves, rolls, buns and many pastry-like items commonly eaten at breakfast, lunch or as snacks and sold in bakeries and stores across Japan.

Main meanings

1. Collective label for commercially produced bakery goods and many pastry items distinct from rice-based staples.
2. Culinary category referenced when discussing ingredients, preparations, or product types in recipes and packaging.
3. Base element in compound terms that name shops, products, or styles of bread rather than functioning as a grammatical marker.

How to use it

Used broadly in everyday, neutral-register speech, on menus, packaging and shop signage; common contexts include bakeries, convenience stores, supermarkets and school cafeterias, and it frequently appears modified by descriptors (e.g., types or flavors) to specify loafs, rolls or sweet pastries.

Variants and close terms

食パン (shokupan) — sliced white loaf
菓子パン (kashipan) — sweet bread/pastry
パン屋 (panya) — bakery (shop)
パン粉 (panko) — breadcrumbs

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese pão, the word was adapted into Japanese phonology by simplifying the nasal vowel and rendering it in katakana as パン (pan), matching Japanese moraic structure and consonant-vowel syllables.

Origin

Bread and the word itself entered Japan during early contact with Portuguese traders in the 16th century and became increasingly common during the Meiji era and later industrialization, when Western-style bakeries, school lunches, and mass production expanded the food's presence in Japanese daily life.

Word class

noun (名詞)