Word
僕
Meaning in EnglishI, informal masculine
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
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Word context
What it means
What does 僕 mean? It is a masculine first-person pronoun used to refer to the speaker as 'I' or 'me' in casual speech.
Main meanings
- I or me as a first-person pronoun used by a male speaker.
- Casual to informal register; often chosen by younger speakers or in close relationships.
- Conveys a masculine tone and can imply modesty or simplicity in tone.
- Widely used in daily conversation, dialogues in media, and informal writing; less suitable for formal contexts.
- Occasionally used for stylistic effect in literature or character speech to denote a male narrator.
How to use it
Used by male speakers to refer to themselves in casual conversations with friends, family, or peers; not suitable for formal contexts, official writing, or polite speech where watashi or watakushi would be preferred; commonly heard in everyday conversation, manga and anime dialogues, and informal writing; tone and age can influence nuances and warmth.
Variants and close terms
- ore — masculine, rough; romaji ore; casual or rough self-reference.
- watashi — neutral or formal; romaji watashi; widely used by any gender in polite contexts.
- jibun — reflexive self-reference; romaji jibun; used in introspective or formal narration; not a direct replacement for 僕 in everyday speech.
Composition
- 亻 left radical denotes person; 莫 on the right provides the phonetic cue and a semantic shade; the fusion yields a single-kanji character used as a masculine first-person pronoun indicating a self-referential sense with humble nuance.
Word class
Pronoun (代名詞)
Kanji