駆ける
Meaning in Englishrun, gallop, dash
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
駆ける (kakeru) means to move with speed or momentum; it describes making a rapid, often urgent movement (on foot, on horseback, or figuratively) that conveys haste or forceful progress.
Main meanings
- To gallop specifically when referring to horses or other animals moving at full speed.
- To rush toward a location or person with urgency (arriving quickly at someone's side).
- To propel or move a vehicle or machine quickly in plain speech about speeding.
- Figurative sense: to surge or run through something non-physical, such as feelings, thoughts, or rumor spreading.
How to use it
Used broadly in spoken and written Japanese across casual and neutral registers; the plain dictionary form appears in conversation and narration while polite conjugations are used in formal contexts. Common with animate subjects (people, horses) and in compound verbs to change nuance; frequently appears in news, fiction, and everyday speech and combines in set compounds like 駆け出す (kakedasu), 駆け寄る (kakeyoru), and 駆け抜ける (kakenukeru).
Variants and close terms
- 走る (hashiru): to run — general synonym.
- 急ぐ (isogu): to hurry — emphasizes haste rather than motion type.
- 駆け抜ける (kakenukeru): to dash through — stronger/continuous form.
- 止まる (tomaru): to stop — antonym.
Composition
駆ける (kakeru) combines the kanji 駆—which carries the idea of 'driving' or 'galloping' and includes the horse radical suggesting swift motion—with the okurigana ける that marks the verb ending and grammatical conjugation.
Word class
intransitive verb (ru-verb, 一段動詞)