雲
くも
hepburn kumo
cloud
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 空に白い雲が浮かんでいます。White clouds are floating in the sky.
- 雲の形が動物に見える。The cloud shape looks like an animal.
Collocations
雲 (kumo, cloud)雲が浮かぶ (kumo ga ukabu, clouds float)入道雲 (nyuudougumo, cumulonimbus)雲一つない (kumo hitotsu nai, not a single cloud)雲海 (unkai, sea of clouds)
Mnemonic
Kumo (雲) is the noun "cloud" — the root of kumoru. Homophone alert: 蜘蛛 kumo means "spider," distinguished only by kanji and context — a classic Japanese pitfall. Rich cloud vocabulary: nyuudougumo (cumulonimbus, summer), uroko-gumo (cirrocumulus, autumn), unkai (sea of clouds, mountains). In literature and haiku, kumo links strongly to ukigumo (浮き雲, "floating clouds") as the impermanence metaphor — life as drifting cloud. Korean "gureum / tteun-gureum" mirrors. Where English has count / mass distinctions, Japanese uses one form.
Quick check
Homophone of kumo (different kanji, different meaning)?