景色
Meaning in Englishscenery, landscape, view
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
景色 means the visual appearance of a place as perceived from a specific vantage point. It is a noun describing the overall panorama of nature, streets, and built environment in a setting, whether tranquil or bustling.
Main meanings
- The overall visual impression of a place, including natural or built surroundings.
- Used with verbs describing looking or gazing at something, such as 景色を眺める or 見える景色.
- Literary or travel contexts where the mood or atmosphere of a scene is described.
How to use it
Used in both formal and casual contexts to describe the visible landscape from a location. In travel writing, film, and photography, 景色 often appears with adjectives like 美しい or phrase 景色を眺める; common collocations include 景色がいい and 景色を楽しむ.
Variants and close terms
- 風景 fuukei — more formal or poetic term for landscape
- 景観 keikan — landscape in a broader sense, often for urban planning
- 眺め nagame — view, the act of looking at a scenery
Composition
- 景: scene, view; the core idea of what is seen
- 色: color, appearance; conveys the overall presentation
- Together they form a noun meaning the visible panorama as a unified whole
Etymology
Pronunciation development:景色 is a native compound read けしき (keshiki); the characters are of Chinese origin, but the current pronunciation is a native Japanese reading formed for this sense.
Origin
Classical Japanese usage; earliest attestations appear in Heian literature and poetry, later widespread in Edo-period travel writing and landscape descriptions.
Word class
Noun (名詞)