大おお阪さか

お

さ

か

Common wordJLPTN5Freq.FrequencyTop 500

Meanings

1

noun

Osaka; Osaka city; Osaka prefecture

Proper place name referring to Osaka in Japan; context determines whether it means the city or the wider prefecture.

大おお阪さかに住すんでいます。
I live in Osaka.
東とう京きょうから大おお阪さかまで新しん幹かん線せんで行いった。
I went from Tokyo to Osaka by Shinkansen.

Written forms

大おお阪さかUsage90%
Standard modern spelling for Osaka, used for both the city and the prefecture.
大おお坂さかUsage10%
out-dated kanji form
Older/outdated kanji spelling; mainly encountered in historical contexts or as an old place-name spelling.
オオサカUsage<1%

Kanji

大large, big
阪heights, slope
坂slope, incline, hill

Similar words

大おお阪さか府ふ
Means Osaka Prefecture specifically; 大阪 by itself can mean either the city or the prefecture depending on context.
大おお阪さか市し
Means Osaka City specifically; use this when the city, rather than the prefecture, must be explicit.

Etymology

The modern standard place-name spelling is 大阪; 大坂 is an older spelling. The characters can be read literally as referring to a large slope or hill, but as a place name it should be learned as the proper noun Osaka rather than as a transparent compound.