月曜日
Meaning in EnglishMonday
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
月曜日 (getsuyoubi) means Monday and refers to the weekly day corresponding to the start of the conventional workweek in Japan; it is the standard term used on calendars, schedules, and in everyday speech to specify events occurring on that day.
Main meanings
- Used to indicate a recurring weekly appointment or routine that falls on Monday.
- Appears as a label on timetables and business hours to mark services or openings specific to that weekday.
- Functions in temporal expressions to place events relative to the week (e.g., before/after Monday).
How to use it
Used universally across formal and casual contexts to name the day Monday on schedules, announcements, and conversation; it commonly pairs with temporal particles (e.g., to mark 'on Monday') and appears in compound date expressions and workplace calendars, with neutral politeness appropriate for both spoken and written Japanese.
Variants and close terms
- 月 (getsu) — common calendar abbreviation for Monday.
- 月曜 (getsuyou) — shortened spoken/written form.
- 日曜日 (nichiyoubi) — Sunday (opposite-weekend example).
Composition
- 月 (getsu) — moon or month; evokes the lunar body associated with this weekday.
- 曜 (you) — luminous/shine element used in compounds to denote 'weekday' (as a classifier for celestial-named days).
- 日 (bi) — day or sun; combines with the previous character to complete the notion of a specific day.
Origin
The concept of a seven-day week and weekday names entered Japan via China and Korea, with astronomical and calendrical systems influenced by Indian and Hellenistic ideas; weekday naming based on celestial bodies became established in Japanese timekeeping during the Nara–Heian periods and was standardized in modern calendars during the Meiji era.
Word class
noun (名詞)