恋する
Meaning in Englishto fall in love with, to love
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does 恋する mean? It denotes falling in love or being in love in a romantic sense, often with a sense of longing or infatuation directed at a person; used in literary or poetic registers and in everyday speech when describing developing romantic feelings.
Main meanings
- to develop romantic attraction toward a particular person
- to experience a romantic feeling that may lead to a relationship
- often used in literature and media to depict the moment of awakening in love
How to use it
Used in casual conversation and formal writing to express developing romantic feelings; with 恋をする indicating falling in love with someone, and 恋する often describing a general romantic vibe rather than a specific action; in formal or literary contexts, other phrasings like 恋に落ちる may be preferred for idiomatic emphasis.
Variants and close terms
- 恋をする — koi o suru — fall in love
- 愛する — ai suru — to love (deep, long-term)
- 思いを寄せる — omoi o yoseru — to have feelings for someone
- 恋愛 — ren'ai — love affair, romantic love (noun)
- 恋に落ちる — koi ni ochiru — to fall in love (idiom)
Composition
- 恋 = romance, love, longing; する = a verb that turns a noun into an action, here forming a verb meaning the act of loving or falling in love
Etymology
Phonology: 恋 is read with the kun'yomi koi, a noun meaning romantic love, and it combines with する to form a verb expressing the action of experiencing love; this noun-plus-suru construction yields the modern meaning of to fall in love, illustrating how a content word can be turned into a dynamic predicate in contemporary Japanese.
Word class
Verb (suru-verb, サ変動詞)