会合
Meaning in Englishmeeting, gathering, assembly
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does 会合 mean? A formal or semi-formal gathering of people for a common purpose, such as a business meeting, club assembly, or scheduled get-together.
Main meanings
- Formal, scheduled meeting among members of a group or organization.
- A gathering or assembly for discussion, decision-making, or coordination within a community.
- A specific event within an organization, like a regular or annual会合, distinct from casual social gatherings.
How to use it
Used in formal writing, meeting notices, and organizational communications to denote a scheduled gathering; commonly paired with verbs such as 開く, 開催する, 持つ; appears in contexts like corporate agendas, civic associations, and club activities.
Variants and close terms
- 集まり (atsumari) — general gathering
- 会議 (kaigi) — conference or formal meeting
- 集会 (shuukai) — public or collective assembly
Composition
- 会 — to meet, assemble; signals a coming together
- 合 — to join, fit, unite; conveys combining into a whole
Etymology
会 kai / kan indicates coming together; 合 gō conveys joining or fitting; the compound yields 会合, read kaigō in standard Japanese; it is a Sino-Japanese compound formed from those two characters.
Origin
Historically attested in classical Japanese; common in Edo- and Meiji-era administrative and organizational discourse, reflecting formal assembly concepts that expanded with modern clubs, companies, and public institutions.
Word class
Noun (名詞)