親しい

Meaning in English

close, intimate, familiar

Stroke order

Animated kanji stroke order

親

Illustrated Dictionary

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Dictionary

Word context

What it means

What does 親しい mean? It denotes a warm, comfortable closeness in a relationship, indicating you know someone well and feel at ease with them; it describes people you interact with regularly in a friendly, trusting way.

Main meanings

a close relationship or sense of familiarity between people
a friendly, easy rapport; a warm social tone when referring to someone
used in compounds to express closeness such as 親しい友人
often contrasts with formal distance or distant attitudes

How to use it

Used in casual to semi formal contexts to describe someone you know well; marks closeness as a social attribute rather than a formal bond; common patterns include 親しい人, 親しい関係, 親しくする; not appropriate for describing distant or official relationships.

Variants and close terms

親密な (shinmitsu na) — close, intimate
仲の良い (naka no yoi) — on good terms, friendly
疎遠な (soen na) — distant, estranged
無関係な (mukankeina) — unrelated

Composition

親: root meaning close, intimate; also used for parent in other contexts
しい: common i-adjective suffix that marks a property

Word class

i-adjective (形容詞)

Word

Related words by kanji and components

N1 肉親 nikushin blood relationship, blood relative N1 親父 oyaji one's father, old man, one's boss N1 親しむ shitashimu to be intimate with, to befriend N1 親善 shinzen friendship N2 親指 oyayubi thumb N2 親類 shinrui relative(s) (same as 親戚 (しんせき)) N3 親戚 shinseki relative, relatives N3 親友 shinyuu close friend, best friend N3 父親 chichioya father, paternal figure