仲間
Meaning in Englishcompany, fellow, colleague, associate
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
仲間 (nakama) means a person who belongs to the same group or shares a bond of mutual affiliation; it denotes membership and interpersonal connection within an in-group rather than a formal role, and often implies mutual support, shared purpose, or emotional closeness in everyday speech.
Main meanings
- 1. Indicates membership in a group defined by a common activity or purpose (team, club, project).
- 2. Emphasizes peer status—people on the same level rather than superiors or outsiders.
- 3. Used as an affectionate or informal label among friends and allies, especially in storytelling and pop culture.
- 4. Carries a complicity nuance when applied to partners in wrongdoing (accomplice sense).
- 5. Can be extended metaphorically to non-human sets, like a group of animals or items treated as a unit.
How to use it
Common in casual speech to identify teammates, friends, or people who belong to the same circle; less formal than business terms, so in formal workplace or official documents speakers prefer alternatives; frequently used in entertainment to stress solidarity and appears both positively (support, camaraderie) and negatively (accomplices) depending on context.
Variants and close terms
- 同僚 (dōryō): colleague (workplace)
- 友達 (tomodachi): friend
- 仲良し (nakayoshi): close friend/pal
- 仲間外れ (nakama-hazure): someone excluded from the group (opposite concept)
- 共犯者 (kyōhansha): accomplice (criminal nuance)
Composition
- 仲 (naka): relates to relationship, mediation, or the idea of 'middle' between people.
- 間 (ma): denotes an interval, space, or relational gap in time or place.
Origin
The idea of grouping people as 仲間 reflects long-standing social structures in Japan—guilds, workplace groups, and local communities historically emphasized collective bonds; the modern colloquial sense solidified with urbanization and workplace grouping, later reinforced and emotionally amplified by literature, theater, and popular media such as manga and anime.
Word class
noun (名詞)