我慢
Meaning in Englishpatience, endurance, self-control
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does 我慢 mean? It means patience and endurance, the ability to bear hardship without complaint, often through self-control; in Japanese usage, gaman denotes enduring discomfort or adversity with stoicism and restraint, sometimes to avoid burdening others.
Main meanings
- forbearance under pressure or discomfort
- self-control in social contexts, avoiding open complaint
- stoic resilience in personal or collective hardship
How to use it
Used across formal and informal contexts to describe bearing hardship, restraining impulses, or maintaining composure; common in education, workplace communication, media coverage of resilience, and everyday conversation.
Variants and close terms
- 忍耐 (nintai) — patience, endurance
- 辛抱 (shinbou) — forbearance, perseverance
- 忍ぶ (shinobu) — to endure or suppress
- 諦める (akirameru) — to give up, antonym
Composition
- 我 meaning self, ego; in this compound it signals the self-restraint aspect
- 慢 meaning slow; signals delaying impulses to endure
Etymology
Formed from Chinese-derived on'yomi readings: 我 ga + 慢 man, a Sino-Japanese compound read gaman; this phonetic fusion shows how two characters fused into a fixed meaning of self-restraint.
Word class
Noun; can be used as a suru-verb.