Japanese words for the body and health: 50 words

50 Japanese body and health words

Words are in their usual spelling with a Hepburn reading. A few are often written in kana instead of kanji, such as 咳 (せき) and 怪我 (けが); the second section explains which. This is the health pack the Contos web app uses for flashcard review.

How do you say what hurts in Japanese?

The list gives the adjective 痛い (itai, painful) for to hurt. Put it after the body part and が: 頭が痛い, my head hurts. Add です to be polite. The verb 痛む (itamu) means the same but is more at home in writing, and 頭痛 (zutsū, headache) is the word a doctor writes down. For toothache the list gives 歯の痛み (ha no itami), the pain of a tooth, but in speech people almost always say 頭が痛い and 歯が痛い.

Body words that need a closer look

Two words in the list are both read ashi. 足 is the foot, and in everyday writing the whole leg too; 脚 is the leg specifically and is more common in print. You can say 足が痛い for a sore foot or a sore leg.

Some health words are usually written in kana because their kanji are hard: せき for 咳 (cough), けが for 怪我 (injury) and くしゃみ (sneeze), which is almost never written in kanji. Recognise both forms on medicine boxes.

At the doctor's and the pharmacy

病院 (byōin) covers hospitals and many clinics; small local surgeries often call themselves クリニック (kurinikku). For over-the-counter medicine, go to a ドラッグストア (doraggu sutoa); a 薬局 (yakkyoku) is the pharmacy that fills a 処方箋 (shohōsen), a prescription.

You take medicine by "drinking" it in Japanese: 薬を飲む (kusuri o nomu), even for tablets.