Usage patterns 不ぶ 気き 味み な 〈 物もの 〉 an eerie/creepy ~ (thing, place, atmosphere)
The forest was wrapped in an eerie silence.
不ぶ 気き 味み に 〈 動どう 詞し 〉 to do something in an eerie/unsettling way
He approached me, laughing eerily.
不ぶ 気き 味み な 予よ 感かん がする to have an ominous feeling
That day, for some reason, I had an ominous feeling.
不ぶ 気き 味み な 〈 事こと 〉 が 起お こる an eerie/uncanny thing happens
Once night fell, a series of eerie incidents continued.
Kanji 無 nothingness, none, ain't Related words· 10 気味悪い is a colloquial word for something that feels disgusting or creepy, while 不気味 more often describes an unsettling atmosphere or abstract sense of dread.
薄気味悪い adds a nuance of faint, vague creepiness, whereas 不気味 is broader and can describe stronger or more abstract eeriness.
気持ち悪い usually points to physical disgust or nausea, while 不気味 focuses on a mysterious, foreboding feeling rather than repulsion.
怪しい emphasizes suspicion or doubt about someone's intentions, while 不気味 emphasizes an eerie, unsettling feeling without necessarily implying wrongdoing.
Show 6 more Show fewer 不気味 stresses a creepy, ominous feeling, while 怪奇 can describe something merely bizarre or mysterious without necessarily feeling threatening.
不気味 is a na-adjective describing an eerie, ominous atmosphere objectively, while 気味が悪い expresses the speaker's own subjective feeling of creepiness or disgust.
不気味 describes an eerie, unsettling feeling (like something creepy but not directly threatening), while 怖い covers fear in general, including direct danger.
不気味 focuses on an eerie, unsettling feeling, while グロテスク adds a specifically grotesque, physically distorted or repulsive image.
不気味 focuses specifically on a creepy, fear-inducing feeling, while 異様 more broadly covers anything abnormal or strange, not always frightening.
不気味 describes something eerie or unsettling in a creepy way, while 不吉 focuses on the sense that something bad is about to happen.
Written forms 不ぶ 気き 味み
Standard kanji spelling; the most common written form.
無ぶ 気き 味み
Alternate kanji spelling; less common and may be considered non-standard.
Etymology Compound of 不 (negative prefix) and 気味 (feeling, sensation), literally 'not a good feeling'. The spelling 無気味 uses 無 (without) instead, but the meaning is the same.
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