増加
Meaning in Englishincrease, growth, addition
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
増加 means the act or result of increasing in quantity or degree, used to describe when numbers, amounts, or intensities grow.
Main meanings
- increase in quantity, amount, or degree in general
- growth in numbers such as population or sales
- rise in statistics or measurable values, often seen in reports
- increase in degree of intensity or scope, such as prices or demand
How to use it
Used as a noun and in compounds like 増加する; common in formal writing, statistics, economics, and science; collocations include 増加率 and 増加傾向; in everyday language it appears in reports and presentations. Examples in Japanese: 人口は増加している; 売上の増加を報告した; 病院の患者数の増加が続いている。
Variants and close terms
- 増大 (zōdai) — increase
- 拡大 (kakudai) — expansion, enlargement
- 成長 (seichō) — growth
- 上昇 (jōshō) — rise
Composition
- 増: increase, grow
- 加: add, plus
Etymology
From Chinese characters 増 and 加, read zōka in Japanese; the compound encodes the idea of making something larger by adding more, and became established in Japanese as a standard Sino-Japanese noun.
Origin
Origin in Japanese as a Sino-Japanese compound formed from kanji that express 'increase' and 'add'; earliest use is attested in classical Chinese texts and the term was integrated into Japanese usage during the Heian period onward, now common in economics, statistics, and daily language.
Word class
noun (Sino-Japanese compound)