惑星
Meaning in Englishplanet
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
惑星 means 'planet' in Japanese, referring to a major celestial body that orbits a star. In astronomy, planets are objects large enough to be rounded by their own gravity and that have cleared their orbital path, covering planets within and beyond our solar system.
Main meanings
- planet in astronomy — wakusei
- Earth-like and other planetary types appear in scientific discourse — wakusei
- in education, used to discuss solar system structure and exoplanets — wakusei
How to use it
Used in formal scientific writing, educational textbooks, and astronomy discussions to denote a planet. It appears in phrases describing planetary features, orbital dynamics, and exoplanet research; casual speech may replace it with 地球 in Earth-specific contexts.
Variants and close terms
- 天体 (tentai) — celestial body
- 恒星 (kousei) — star
- 地球 (Chikyū) — Earth
Composition
- 惑: bewilder, perplex
- 星: star
- 惑星: the concept of a wanderer among the stars, i.e., a planet
Etymology
wakusei is built from the on'yomi readings of 惑 and 星, pairing a verb-like notion of confusion with the star element to form a formal compound used in Sino-Japanese scientific terminology.
Origin
Adopted from Classical Chinese scientific vocabulary, with the Japanese usage appearing in early modern astronomy texts and later standardizing in Edo-period dictionaries and science literature.
Word class
Noun (名詞)