喪
miss, mourning
Readings
On'yomi
- ソウ
Kun'yomi
- も
Meaning
喪 centers on the experience of loss: missing someone or something that is gone, and the formal mourning that follows such a loss.
Most common words using 喪
20 of 43- 喪失そうしつN1
loss; forfeit
- 喪も
mourning
- 喪服もふく
mourning clothes; mourning attire; mourning dress
- 心神喪失しんしんそうしつ
insanity; lack of mental capacity; (state of) non compos mentis
- 喪中もちゅう
in mourning
- 喪神そうしん
absent-mindedness; stupor; stupefaction; abstraction; being stunned
- 喪主もしゅ
chief mourner
- 喪章もしょう
mourning band; mourning ribbon
- 大喪たいそう
funeral service of a Japanese emperor
- 服喪ふくも
going into mourning
- 付喪神つくもがみ
artifact spirit; in folk belief, long-lived objects (household objects, living beings, nature, etc.) become inhabited by a spirit upon their 100th birthday
- 処女喪失しょじょそうしつ
loss of virginity (of a female); defloration; deflowering
- 喪に服すもにふくす
to go into mourning
- 喪に服するもにふくする
to go into mourning
- 喪中欠礼もちゅうけつれい
refraining from offering the (New Year's) greetings during the period of mourning
- 喪事そうじ
funeral
- 喪失感そうしつかん
sense of loss; feeling of loss
- 喪女もじょ
unpopular woman; woman who isn't well-liked by men
- 喪家そうか
homeless; family in mourning
- 喪家の狗そうかのいぬ
feeling lost like a stray dog
Study
Etymology
喪 is thought to combine 哭 (weeping) with 亡 (lost), suggesting mourning for the dead. The modern form is complex and its exact historical development is uncertain.
Meaning mnemonic
The top looks like two crying eyes above a mouth 口, and the bottom resembles clothing 衣. Picture mourners in funeral clothes, their mouths open in grief and tears falling.
Reading mnemonic
For ソウ, imagine the soul (ソウ) of the departed being mourned: soul -> ソウ, and the mourners miss them deeply.