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おやつ (oyatsu) Japanese meaning: snack | Kotomora
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Let's have a snack at 3 o'clock.
Today's snack is cookies.
Kanji 八 eight, eight radical (no. 12) Related words 間食 is the formal, dictionary-style term for eating between meals, while おやつ is the everyday word for a snack, especially in the afternoon.
スナック refers specifically to packaged snack foods like chips or crackers, while おやつ covers any light food eaten between meals, including homemade treats.
軽食 means a light meal (like a sandwich for lunch), whereas おやつ specifically means a between-meal snack, often sweet, eaten mid-afternoon.
おやつ refers to a snack eaten at a set time (often afternoon), which may or may not be sweet, while お菓子 specifically means sweets or confectionery.
三時 (in this sense) is short for 三時のおやつ, the specific mid-afternoon snack time, while おやつ is the general word for any snack regardless of when it's eaten.
Written forms おやつ Usage 94%
Standard kana spelling; the word is usually written in kana.
オヤツ Usage 6%
お 八や つ Usage <1%
rarely-used kanji form
Rare kanji form; it is rarely used.
Etymology Derived from お + 八つ (yatsu), referring to the eighth hour of the old Japanese time system, which corresponded to mid-afternoon (around 2–4 PM). The term originally meant a light meal taken at that time and later broadened to any between-meal snack.
