食事
しょくじ
hepburn shokuji
meal, to dine
Part of speech · noun / suru-verb
Pattern visualization
食eat
事matter
Show part origins
Show stroke order animation
9 strokes · 6.2s
8 strokes · 5.5s
Examples
- 食事の前に手を洗います。I wash my hands before a meal.
- 一緒に食事をしませんか。Would you like to dine together?
Collocations
食事 (shokuji, meal)食事する (shokuji suru, to dine)朝食 (choushoku, breakfast)昼食 (chuushoku, lunch)夕食 (yuushoku, dinner)
Mnemonic
Shokuji (食事) is the Sino-Japanese word for "meal." Both the act (shokuji suru = to dine) and the result (a meal as event). It outranks gohan in formality — used with clients, elders, business. Time-of-day splits are all on-reading: choushoku (breakfast), chuushoku (lunch), yuushoku (dinner); colloquial speech prefers asa-gohan / hiru-gohan / yuu-gohan (kun-reading, friendly). Shokuji-kai = a meal gathering, often a business dinner. Korean siksa / gangji / jinji has the same formality layering.
Quick check
Formal verb for inviting a colleague to dine after a meeting?