待ち合わせ

What it means

待ち合わせ means a planned meeting or rendezvous where people agree to gather at a specified time and place, typically in a public or designated location.

Main meanings

• An arranged meeting in which participants commit to gather at a set time and location.
• The act or moment of waiting at the designated spot for others to arrive, often expressed as 待ち合わせ場所 or 待ち合わせ時間.
• Commonly used in casual settings to discuss plans with friends or colleagues and in signage or directions that indicate where to converge.

How to use it

Used across casual and semi-formal speech to discuss meeting plans. In everyday conversation it refers to the arrangement and the waiting period at the agreed point; in formal contexts it may be replaced by more explicit expressions like 約束 or 会う約束, with 待ち合わせ appearing mainly in informal or conversational planning.