生年月日
Meaning in Englishbirth date
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
生年月日 means the date of birth: the year, month, and day on which a person was born; it is used in official records, forms, and identity checks to determine age and eligibility.
Main meanings
- Primary meaning is the exact birth date used for identification and administrative purposes.
- When speaking casually about birthdays, people usually use 誕生日 rather than 生年月日.
- In data entry and records, 生年月日 is a standard field label for age verification and legal documentation.
How to use it
Used in formal contexts such as government forms, medical records, school enrollment, and legal documents; in casual speech, 誕生日 is used for birthday celebrations, while 生年月日 appears on official records and applications.
Variants and close terms
- 誕生日 tanjoubi — birthday (casual)
- 生年月日 seinengappi — formal birth date
Composition
- 生: birth, life
- 年: year
- 月: month
- 日: day
- Overall: four-kanji compound meaning the birth date, the year-month-day of a person’s birth
Etymology
etimologia sei + nen + gappi reflects the standard on'yomi readings of 生 and 年, with 日 often read as ひ/び in compounds; in this word the reading combines into seinengappi, a conventional form in modern Japanese.
Origin
Meiji-era civil registration and the modernization of administrative systems introduced standardized birth date recording as a formal data element in official documents; earlier practices varied by locale and era.
Word class
Noun (名詞)