大学
だいがく
hepburn daigaku
university, college
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
大big
學study
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8 strokes · 5.5s
Examples
- 兄は大学生です。My older brother is a university student.
- 東京大学に入りたいです。I want to get into the University of Tokyo.
Collocations
大学 (daigaku, university)大学生 (daigakusei, university student)大学院 (daigakuin, graduate school)東大 (Toudai, Univ. of Tokyo — shortened)私立大学 (shiritsu daigaku, private univ.)
Mnemonic
大学 daigaku — kanji "great (大) + learning (学)". Borrowed from the classical Chinese 大学 (a Confucian text title) into both Korean and Japanese to mean "university". Japan classifies them as 国立 (national), 公立 (public), 私立 (private). Abbreviation culture is vigorous: 東京大学 → 東大 (Toudai), 京都大学 → 京大 (Kyoudai), 早稲田大学 → 早稲田 (Waseda). The vocabulary encodes social hierarchy — being a 東大 graduate is shorthand for Japanese elite signaling.
Quick check
Full name and social weight of 東大?