Word
遠足
Meaning in Englishtrip, hike, picnic
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does 遠足 mean? A school-organized outdoor excursion for students, usually a daytime outing to a park, museum, or other site outside the classroom, blending educational aims with recreation and group activity.
Main meanings
- Primary sense: a class- or school-led daytime outdoor trip to a site of interest for observation and informal learning.
- Nuance: more often used for planned educational outings with teacher supervision, rather than casual travel.
- Context: in modern usage, common in school schedules and announcements; outside education, 遠出 is more typical for general long-distance trips.
How to use it
Primarily used in educational and formal contexts to refer to a planned outdoor excursion by a class or group; commonly seen in school communications and calendars. It is used with verbs like 行く or する to indicate participation; usage is more formal in written language than in casual speech.
Variants and close terms
- 遠出 (えんしゅつ) – general long-distance trip, en-shutsu
- 校外学習 (こうがいがくしゅう) – field study, kougai gakushuu
- 社会見学 (しゃかいけんがく) – social studies field trip, shakai kengaku
Composition
- 遠: far, distant
- 足: foot, leg
- Together they convey moving to distant places, which underpins the concept of a planned outdoor learning trip enjoyed as part of education.
Etymology
ensoku is formed from the on'yomi readings of 遠 (en) and 足 (soku), combined to yield the pronunciation 遠足.
Word class
Noun (名詞)