薬局
Meaning in Englishpharmacy, drugstore
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
薬局 (yakkyoku) means a business or facility where medicines are professionally prepared, dispensed, and pharmaceutical consultation is provided; it refers to establishments staffed by licensed pharmacists who handle prescription medications, manage medication records, and offer drug-related advice to patients and customers.
Main meanings
- 1. A technical or legal term used in regulations and licensing to denote an establishment authorized to handle and dispense regulated pharmaceuticals.
- 2. The pharmacy department inside medical institutions that manages inpatient or outpatient drug supply and compounding.
- 3. By metonymy, a place-name used to refer to pharmacy services or the staff who provide them.
- 4. In some contexts, used to distinguish pharmacies that perform professional dispensing from general retail drugstores focused on over-the-counter sales.
How to use it
Appears on storefront signs, directories, hospital maps and legal documents to identify where prescription and pharmaceutical services are provided; used in neutral registers in everyday conversation and formal registers when referring to licensed establishments or outpatient dispensing areas; in speech it serves as a destination or facility term rather than a casual product-word.
Variants and close terms
- 薬屋 (kusuriya) — apothecary or old-fashioned drug shop
- ドラッグストア (doraggusutoa) — drugstore, often a retail chain emphasizing OTC goods
- 調剤薬局 (chouzai yakkyoku) — dispensing pharmacy specializing in filling prescriptions
- 病院薬局 (byouin yakkyoku) — hospital pharmacy
Composition
- 薬 (yaku) — medicine, drug, broadly anything medicinal or pharmaceutical.
- 局 (kyoku) — bureau, office, or designated place for specific administrative or practical functions.
- Together they denote a designated place or office for medicines and pharmaceutical work: a facility where medicinal substances are stored, prepared and issued.
Etymology
薬 (yaku) + 局 (kyoku) combined in Japanese phonology produces consonant gemination, creating the spoken form yakkyoku; the small tsu sound marks the doubled k consonant that arose when the two moras fused.
Origin
The idea of shops selling medicines dates back to pre-modern Japan with herbalists and kusuri-ya, but the modern institution called 薬局 (yakkyoku) developed alongside Western medicine in the Meiji period and was formalized through 19th–20th century pharmaceutical regulations and licensing that created the regulated pharmacy profession found in Japan today.
Word class
noun (名詞)