Word
財布
Meaning in Englishwallet, purse
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
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Word context
What it means
財布 means a wallet or purse. It's a small, portable container used to carry money, cards, and other small personal items, typically kept in a pocket or bag for everyday transactions.
Main meanings
- Primary sense: a personal container used to carry cash, credit cards, and receipts
- Figurative use: funds or a person’s available money or budget in discussions of finances
How to use it
Used in both casual and formal contexts to name the object that stores money and payment cards; common in everyday speech, travel discussions, shopping contexts, and personal finance talks; used when talking about losing, finding, or budgeting with money.
Variants and close terms
- サイフ (saifu) — katakana variant
- 札入れ (ふだいれ, fudaire) — wallet mainly for banknotes
- 長財布 (ながさいふ, nagasaifu) — long wallet
- 二つ折り財布 (ふたつおりさいふ, futatsubori saifu) — bifold wallet
Composition
- 貝: money, wealth; shells historically used as currency in ancient Japan
- 帚: broom; here functioning as a phonetic element to yield the reading
Etymology
From 貝 money and 帚 broom, a two-kanji combination whose historical sense centers on a container for money, giving rise to the modern wallet meaning.
Word class
Noun (名詞)
Word
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