Word
お大事に
Meaning in EnglishTake care of yourself, Take care!, Get well soon
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does お大事に mean? It is a polite wish meaning 'please take care' or 'get well soon' directed at someone's health; used when someone is ill or recovering, often at the end of a conversation, card, or message to express heartfelt care. It conveys concern for the other person's well-being and functions as a conventional parting phrase.
Main meanings
- Get well soon or please take care of yourself, especially when someone is sick or recovering
- Used as a polite closing in conversations, cards, messages to convey concern for the other person's health
- Conveys warmth and concern in both casual and formal registers
How to use it
- Used toward someone who is ill or recovering
- Common in both spoken and written Japanese
- Appropriate in polite and semi-formal contexts; not used with strangers in very casual settings
Variants and close terms
- お体にお気をつけて (o-karada ni ki o tsukete) — health-focused variant
- お体を大事に (otai o daiji ni) — take good care of your body
- Be well; take care — English equivalents
Composition
- お - honorific prefix attached to nouns and phrases to show politeness
- 大事 - 大 means big/great; 事 means matter; together they form important matters, extended here to health
- に - particle indicating direction or target of the action
Etymology
o as honorific prefix; daiji from 大 big + 事 matter; the pronunciation odaiji develops as a fixed expression over time
Word class
set phrase (慣用表現)