運動

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 健康のために毎日運動しています。▶ —
   I exercise every day for health.
2. 小学校の運動会に参加しました。▶ —
   I joined the elementary school sports day.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Undou (運動) is the Sino-Japanese "exercise / movement" — 運 (transport) + 動 (move) = "transported movement = physical activity." Noun or suru-verb. Broader than supootsu — covers all physical activity (walking, gymnastics, yoga, running). Semantic cluster: (1) physical exercise (default: mai-asa undou suru, daily morning exercise), (2) political / social movement (gakusei undou student movement, shimin undou citizens' movement, feminizumu undou, ajia jinken undou), (3) physics motion (tousoku undou uniform motion, Nyuuton no undou hou-soku Newton's laws of motion), (4) machine motion. Same word stretches from individual body → collective society → physical matter — a textbook Sino-Japanese metaphor extension. Undoukai (sports day, spring / autumn school event) features kids, staff, and parents in 5–6 events (toikkyousou races, tsunabiki tug-of-war, kibasen mock cavalry, kumitaisou group gymnastics — the last increasingly scaled back over injury concerns). Undou shinkei (athletic intuition / sense) is an everyday evaluative phrase — "kare wa undou shinkei ga ii" = he is athletically gifted.

Quick check

1. Sociopolitical example of undou's semantic extension?

   • Gakusei undou (student movement) / feminizumu undou
   • Mai-asa no undou — daily exercise
   • Tousoku undou — uniform motion (physics)
   • Kikai no undou — machine motion