Meaning

Primary

To Carve

Alternative

To Cut Up

Word Type

transitive verb, godan verb

Explanation

Because the hiragana ends with an sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means carve so the verb version is to carve.

Reading

きざむ
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:

You don't have a knife for your steak, so you have to carve it using the key zag (きざ) technique. You take a key and zag it through the steak repeatedly until you're able to cut up some zaggy bite-sized pieces.

Context

Context Sentences

葱を刻むのは面倒くさいよ。

I can’t be bothered to cut up the green onion.

Kanji Composition