Word
鈍い
Meaning in Englishdull, slow, blunt
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
鈍い means dull or blunt, describing something not sharp or a person slow to perceive. It covers physical dullness as well as cognitive or perceptual sluggishness, and can describe dull pain or dull responses.
Main meanings
- Physical dullness: a blade or edge that is not sharp.
- Perceptual slowness: reduced senses or slow understanding; common collocations include 反応が鈍い and 頭が鈍い.
- Dull pain or ache: a non-sharp, lingering sensation.
- Muted brightness or sound: a color or noise that feels dull or unremarkable.
How to use it
鈍い is an i-adjective used to describe dullness in objects or people's perception, or slow to react; attaches to nouns directly (鈍い刃) and to predicates (edge が 鈍い, person が 鈍い). It is used in casual and neutral contexts; for people, prefer specific phrases like 頭が鈍い or 感覚が鈍い to avoid bluntness.
Variants and close terms
- 遅い (おそい, osoi) — slow in time
- 鈍感な (どんかんな, donkan na) — insensitive
- のろい (noroi) — slow, sluggish
- 鋭い (するどい, surudoi) — antonym meaning sharp
Composition
- 鈍: the kanji conveys dullness or bluntness, often with a metallic or hard edge connotation; い is the adjective suffix forming the word as an i-adjective.
Word class
adjective (形容詞・イ)