死体
Meaning in Englishcorpse
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
死体 (shitai) means the physical body of a person after death; it refers to the corpse itself as a tangible object rather than a living person and is commonly translated as "corpse" or "dead body."
Main meanings
- 1. A body examined or handled as an object in legal or forensic contexts (subject of autopsy or evidence).
- 2. In some contexts it can denote nonhuman remains, though other terms are more typical for animals.
- 3. A term frequently used in crime fiction, horror, and reporting to denote discovered remains or a murder victim.
How to use it
Used as a concrete noun in statements about death, discovery, transport, or examination of a body; grammatically it behaves like any Japanese noun (takes particles such as が/を) and appears in reports, investigations, medical descriptions, and genre fiction; in everyday conversation it can sound blunt or harsh, so speakers often avoid it when speaking about someone known personally.
Variants and close terms
- 遺体 (itai) — remains of a deceased person, often more formal or respectful in legal/ceremonial contexts
- 死骸 (shigai) — carcass/remains, commonly used for animals or to emphasize physical remains
- 亡骸 (nakigara) — literary/poetic term for the deceased's remains
- 生体 (seitai) — living body (antonym)
Composition
- 死 (shi) — death; to die.
- 体 (tai) — body; physical form.
- Together the first character (death) modifies the second (body) to produce the compound meaning 'dead body' or 'corpse'.
Origin
The characters are borrowed from classical Chinese writing; the concept of naming and categorizing human remains existed throughout Japan’s history alongside Buddhist and Shinto funerary practices, with more formal legal classifications and forensic terminology becoming standardized in the modern Meiji-era legal and medical systems.
Word class
noun (名詞)