Word
三日
Meaning in Englishthree days
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
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Word context
What it means
三日 means three days or the third day of the month, used to indicate either a duration of three days or a calendar date.
Main meanings
- three-day duration
- the third day of a month (date reference)
- appears in compounds and idioms involving time or dates, such as 三日間
How to use it
Used as a noun to denote either a duration of three days or the third day of a month; in spoken Japanese it appears in constructions like 三日間 for three days, 三日後 for three days later, and as a date marker in calendar references.
Variants and close terms
- 三日間 — (みっかかん, mikkakan) three days
- 三日月 — (みかづき, mikazuki) crescent moon
- さんにち — (さんにち, sannichi) Sino-Japanese reading used in compounds
Composition
- 三 = three
- 日 = day, sun; together they form a unit indicating a three-day span or the third day
Etymology
三日 combines 三 (three) and 日 (day); the kun-reading mikka covers the native counting of days and the on-reading sannichi appears in Sino-Japanese terminology.
Origin
Origin traces to ancient Japanese counting with 日 as a day counter, influenced by the Chinese calendar and used in classical literature to denote the third day or a three-day period.
Word class
noun (名詞)
Word
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