象
ぞう
hepburn zou
elephant
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 動物園で象を見ました。I saw an elephant at the zoo.
- 象は鼻が長いです。Elephants have long noses (trunks).
Collocations
象 (zou, elephant)ぞうさん (zousan, "Mr. Elephant" — children's song)象牙 (zouge, ivory)巨象 (kyozou, huge elephant — metaphor)群盲象を評す (gunmou zou wo hyousu, idiom "blind men and the elephant")
Mnemonic
象 zou — the animal elephant plus the abstract sense "phenomenon / image". Two meaning branches: (1) elephant (zou, kun reading), (2) abstract image/phenomenon (shou onyomi) — 現象 (genshou, phenomenon), 印象 (inshou, impression), 対象 (taishou, target/object). The 1948 children's song 「ぞうさん」 (lyrics by Mado Michio) is one every Japanese knows by heart — an elephant mother-and-child dialogue. Learning the word through nursery rhyme absorbs hiragana plus meaning at once. A staple picture-book character. One animal word bridges nursery songs and abstract clusters.
Quick check
Meaning of 象 in the compound 現象?