Word
十字路
Meaning in Englishcrossroads
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Word context
What it means
十字路 means a crossroads or an intersection where two or more streets cross, typically forming a four-way junction; it's used to describe the physical place where routes meet and traffic can go in any direction.
Main meanings
- A four-way intersection where streets cross at right angles
- Figurative sense: a pivotal moment or turning point in life or a project
- Usage in signage and maps; more formal or written contexts often prefer 交差点
How to use it
Used in formal writing, cartography, and traffic discourse; in daily speech, 十字路 is less common than 交差点, and is more likely to appear in maps, place names, or literary contexts; the phrase 人生の十字路 is used metaphorically to denote a crucial decision point.
Variants and close terms
- 交差点 (こうさてん, kousaten) — crossroad, intersection
- 四辻 (よつつじ, yotsutsuji) — four-way intersection
- 丁字路 (ていじろ, teijiro) — T-junction
Composition
- 十 — cross-shaped figure; a central cross used here to convey a crossing point
- 字 — character; contributes the ji sound in the compound
- 路 — road; the semantic core indicating the location is a road
Etymology
juujiro forms the phonetic core of the compound; the on'yomi readings from 十 and 路 align to juu and jiro, and the word was regularized in modern Japanese as juujiro.
Word class
Noun (名詞)
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