Word
Kana: すくい Romaji: sukui Level: N1

救い

Meaning in English

help, aid, relief

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Word context

What it means

救い means salvation or rescue; it denotes deliverance from danger or distress, and can refer to both tangible rescue and emotional or spiritual relief, often used in religious or moral contexts as well as everyday language.

Main meanings

  • deliverance from danger or suffering; the act or state of being saved
  • spiritual or moral deliverance, including comforting relief or divine intervention
  • figurative relief in emotional distress, a sense of hope or reprieve

How to use it

Used in formal writing, religious discourse, and everyday speech to describe being saved or the act of saving; common constructions include 救いを求める (sukui o motomeru), 救いをもたらす (sukui o motarasu), 救い主 (sukui nushi), 救いの言葉 (sukui no kotoba), 救いがない (sukui ga nai) (sukui o motomeru, sukui o motarasu, sukui nushi, sukui no kotoba, sukui ga nai).

Variants and close terms

  • 救済 (kyūsai) – relief, remediation
  • 救出 (kyūshutsu) – rescue from danger
  • 助け (tasuke) – help or aid
  • 絶望 (zetsubō) – despair (antonym)

Composition

  • 救: to save, rescue
  • い: nominalizing suffix turning the verb into a noun, indicating the state or result of saving

Etymology

From the verb 救う (sukuu) with the nominalizing suffix い, forming a noun that denotes the act or result of saving.

Word class

noun (名詞, meishi)

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