Word
妻
Meaning in Englishwife, my wife
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
What does 妻 mean? It means wife or female spouse in Japanese, referring to a married woman within a family, used in both everyday speech and formal writing.
Main meanings
- core social role as a married woman within a family and household
- neutral, modern usage suitable for most contexts, including formal writing
- commonly paired with possessives like 私の to indicate a specific relationship
How to use it
Used as a noun to denote a wife; in casual speech it appears as 私の妻 to signal a direct relationship, while in formal writing or biographies 妻 is common on its own; the term denotes marital status and is appropriate in discussions of family life or spouse-related topics.
Variants and close terms
- kanai — wife; romaji kanai
- nyōbō — wife; romaji nyōbō
- okusan — wife, polite everyday term; romaji okusan
- shujin — husband (antonymic role); romaji shujin
Composition
- Single kanji 妻; radical indicates female (女); the whole character denotes a married woman within the family context
Etymology
tsuma is the kun'yomi reading of 妻, while the on'yomi reading sai appears in Sino-Japanese compounds; this reflects typical kanji pronunciation shifts rather than a direct borrowing of the spoken word.
Word class
noun (名詞)
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