Word
Kana: はれる Romaji: hareru Level: N1

腫れる

Meaning in English

to swell (from inflammation, to become swollen)

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Illustrated Dictionary
腫れる - Illustrated Dictionary
Sentence

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Dictionary

Word context

What it means

腫れる means to become swollen or inflamed, typically as a result of injury, infection, allergy, or irritation; it describes tissue increasing in size due to fluid buildup or inflammation.

Main meanings

  • Physical swelling of a body part such as a finger, ankle, or face in response to injury, infection, inflammation, or allergy.
  • Used in medical or everyday language to refer to the visible swelling, with 腫れ as the noun for the swelling itself.
  • Often appears in phrases about progression or subsiding, such as 腫れが引く.

How to use it

Used in casual speech and formal medical or descriptive contexts to talk about swelling of body tissues; as an intransitive verb it takes a subject referring to a part of the body, and its polite form is はれます, while the negative is はれません.

Variants and close terms

  • 膨れる (fukureru) — to swell or bulge; used for things that puff up, including body parts and objects; romaji fukureru
  • 腫脹する (shōchō suru) — to swell in a medical or technical sense; romaji shōchō suru
  • 膨張する (bouchō suru) — to inflate or expand; romaji bouchō suru

Composition

  • 腫: means swelling, tumor; indicates swelling of tissue or inflamed areas.
  • れ: the verb-ending inflection that converts the noun stem into an intransitive verb; together they form腫れる meaning to become swollen.

Etymology

etimologia: From the noun 腫れ (swelling) plus the verb-ending suffix -る, forming an intransitive verb; the kanji 腫 denotes swelling and is the semantic core of the word.

Word class

Verb (ichidan, ru-verb)

Kanji

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