情報
Meaning in Englishinformation, data, intelligence
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
情報 (jouhou) means information: broadly, facts, data, news, or signals collected, transmitted, or interpreted to reduce uncertainty or support decisions; it covers anything from raw data to summarized reports used in communication, media, business, security, and computing.
Main meanings
- 1. Information as raw data or measurable signals used in analysis or systems.
- 2. News or reports delivered to the public or specific audiences.
- 3. Intelligence in security or military contexts—collected knowledge about people, groups, or events.
- 4. Technical meaning in computing and information science referring to stored, transmitted, or processed data.
- 5. Legal and administrative sense in phrases related to personal data and disclosure rules.
How to use it
Used across formal and informal contexts: technical writing, news media, government documents, IT and business settings, and everyday speech when referring to facts or news; commonly appears in compound terms for personal information, information sources, and data services and is appropriate in polite or neutral registers.
Variants and close terms
- データ (deeta) — data
- 知識 (chishiki) — knowledge
- 情報源 (jouhougen) — information source
- インフォメーション (infomeeshon) — information (loanword, katakana)
- 秘密 (himitsu) — secret (often an antonym in disclosure contexts)
Composition
- 情 (jou) — feeling, emotion, state; denotes condition or sentiment that can be observed.
- 報 (hou) — report, announce, reward; denotes conveying or reporting information.
- Together they form the compound meaning information as reported or conveyed states and facts used to inform others.
Etymology
情報 (jouhou) is a kango (Sino-Japanese) compound using on readings; the pronunciation follows Chinese-derived on’yomi patterns (jou + hou), formed in modern Japanese to express the concept equivalently to Western terms for information.
Origin
The modern use of 情報 (jouhou) expanded during the Meiji and Taishō eras as Japan adopted Western administrative, scientific, and military concepts; by the 20th century it became central in press reporting, intelligence services, and later proliferated with telecommunications and computer science.
Word class
noun (名詞)