卵
Meaning in Englishegg
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
卵 (tamago) means "egg" and denotes the ovoid reproductive body produced by birds, reptiles, and many invertebrates; it is a self-contained structure that can contain an embryo and nutrient reserves and is characterized by a yolk and albumen in many species.
Main meanings
- 1. Egg as a common culinary ingredient and standalone food item used in cooking and baking.
- 2. Fish eggs or roe when used in culinary or biological contexts (often specified in compounds).
- 3. Figurative or descriptive use to mean an egg-shaped object or the earliest stage of development in non-biological contexts.
How to use it
Used across everyday speech, cookery, menus, grocery labeling and scientific writing; in casual conversation people commonly refer to 卵 (tamago) when talking about breakfast, recipes or ingredients, while medical or biological contexts may use more specific terms and formal registers for gametes or embryonic stages.
Variants and close terms
- 玉子 (tamago) — alternate orthography for egg used in names and menus.
- 卵子 (ranshi) — technical term for ovum (female gamete) in biology/medicine.
- 魚卵 (gyoran) — fish eggs, roe.
- 卵黄 (ranou) — yolk.
- 卵白 (ranpaku) — egg white.
Composition
卵 (tamago) is a single kanji originally formed as a pictograph representing the rounded shape and internal contents of an egg; the character functions as a standalone morpheme signifying an egg or ova without combining multiple kanji elements.
Origin
Eggs have been part of Japanese diet and material culture since ancient times; as poultry and wild bird eggs were gathered and later farmed, egg-based preparations and preservation methods developed regionally, with many recognizable dishes and culinary techniques becoming codified by the early modern (Edo) period.
Word class
noun (名詞)