Japanese Word of the Day: 'Utsukushii" (Beautiful)

The Japanese word utsukushii means "beautiful, "pretty," "lovely," "fine," "handsome," "good-looking," or "charming." (Click on the link here and below to hear the correct pronunciation of the word or phrase.) It is written in Japanese characters, or kanji, as:

• 美しい （うつくしい）

Example Sentence

An example sentence using utsukushii would be:

• 香奈はとても美しい声で歌った。

Written in rōmaji (Japanese characters printed in Latin script) the sentence reads:

• Kana wa totemo utsukushii koe de utatta.

The sentence means, "Kana sang with a very beautiful voice."

Other Uses

In Kyoto, a city in Japan, there are many Shinto shrines. (Shinto, meaning "the way of the gods," is the traditional religion of Japan.) One of the shrines goes by the name of Utsukushii-gozensha. Utsukushii, of course, means beautiful, gozen is the Japanese word for woman, and sha means a shrine. "The benefit of this shrine is, of course, giving people beauty," says the Kyoto Project.