also: かんせん · かんぜん
cicadas that sing in late autumn
Refers to cicadas that appear and sing in late autumn, often evoking a sense of the season's end. The term is somewhat literary and may be encountered in poetry or descriptive prose.
Hearing the song of late-autumn cicadas at the end of fall makes me feel melancholy.
Standard kanji spelling. The reading かんぜみ is the most common modern pronunciation.
Alternate on'yomi reading, less common in modern usage.
Alternate on'yomi reading, less common in modern usage.
Compound of 寒 (kan, 'cold') and 蝉 (semi, 'cicada'). The reading かんぜみ is a combination of on'yomi and kun'yomi, while かんせん and かんぜん are purely on'yomi readings. The word is not commonly used in everyday conversation and appears mainly in literary contexts.