草

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 庭に草が生えました。▶ —
   Grass has grown in the garden.
2. 草を刈ります。▶ —
   I cut the grass.

Collocations

Mnemonic

草 kusa — grass / weeds. Onyomi そう (sou): 雑草 (zassou, weeds), 草原 (sougen, grassland), 草書 (sousho, cursive calligraphy). Internet slang explosion: 草 = the Japanese equivalent of "lol". Etymology: forum users wrote 笑う (warau, laugh) → "w" → "wwww" → the row of "w"s looked like a field of grass → 草. Settled in the 2010s. A traditional kanji whose original meaning migrated into 21st-century internet slang. Parallel to Korean "ㅋㅋ", Chinese 哈哈, English "lol".

Quick check

1. What does 草 mean in internet slang?

   • Laughter / lol (warau → w → wwww → field of grass)
   • Actual weed
   • Insult
   • Only the literal meaning