Word
体積
Meaning in Englishcapacity, volume
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
体積 means the three-dimensional amount of space that a physical object occupies or could contain; in physics and geometry it denotes the size in three-dimensional space, and it is measured in cubic units.
Main meanings
- volume in the sense of the three-dimensional size of a solid or gas
- capacity or space inside a container or enclosure
- abstract measure of a region’s size in three-dimensional space used in physics and geometry
How to use it
Used in formal, scientific, and technical Japanese to refer to the volume of a body or space; in everyday language it appears mainly when discussing containers or architectural dimensions; it collocates with units such as cubic meters and liters.
Variants and close terms
- 容積 (yoseki) — alternative kanji for volume; used in technical contexts
- 容量 (yōryō) — capacity; related concept referring to how much something can hold, not the geometric size
Composition
- 体 — body, form
- 積 — to pile up, accumulate
Etymology
体 (tai) and 積 (seki) combine in on'yomi to form taiseiki, a Sino-Japanese compound used to denote the three-dimensional measure of space.
Word class
noun (名詞)