風邪
かぜ
hepburn kaze
common cold (illness)
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 風邪をひいて学校を休みました。I caught a cold and missed school.
- 風邪が流行っているので気をつけてください。A cold is going around, so please be careful.
Collocations
風邪 (kaze, common cold)風邪をひく (kaze o hiku, catch a cold)熱 (netsu, fever)マスク (masuku, mask)インフルエンザ (infuruenza, flu)
Mnemonic
Kaze (風邪, common cold) is 風 (wind) + 邪 (evil / harmful), echoing the East Asian medical concept of "fuusha" / "punsa" — wind as the pathogen entering the body. Homophone alert: 風 (kaze) alone is regular wind, but 風邪 together means cold — kanji-dependent. Collocation: kaze o hiku (catch a cold) with the verb hiku (to pull / draw) creating the metaphor of "drawing wind into the body." Korean gam-gi-e geol-li-da, Chinese 得感冒, English "catch a cold" all share the imagery. Masks (masuku) are central to Japanese cold / pollen culture — daily life well before COVID-19.
Quick check
Metaphor of the verb hiku in "kaze o hiku"?