Word
季節
Meaning in Englishseason
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
季節 means season or time of year, referring to the recurring four-part cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter and the characteristic weather and activities associated with each period.
Main meanings
- Season of the year: the annual divisions defined by climate and weather.
- Broader sense: a period or phase in life or circumstance, often used metaphorically.
- Seasonal usage: describing foods, fashion, events, or activities tied to a specific time of year.
How to use it
Used in both formal and informal contexts to refer to time of year; in weather discussions, literature, media, and everyday speech, it can describe climate, seasonal foods, events, and fashion; in formal writing, it appears with nouns, adjectives, and phrases indicating the current or upcoming season.
Variants and close terms
- seasonality — sense of recurring seasons; romaji: kisetsukan
- seasonal — relating to a season; romaji: kisetsuteki
- kisetsu — basic season; romaji: kisetsu
Composition
- 季 means season or quarter of the year;
- 節 means division, period, or node;
- combined, they denote the set of the four seasons and the year’s time divisions as a whole.
Origin
Borrowed from Chinese kanji and integrated into Japanese with the same form; earliest appearances are found in classical Japanese literature via Chinese influence, widely used in the Heian period and beyond.
Word class
Noun (名詞)