人ひとだかり

ひ

と

だ

か

り

Common wordJLPTN1Freq.FrequencyTop 50,000

Meanings

noun

crowd; throng

Refers to a gathering of people, often spontaneous or drawn by something of interest. Commonly used in news and everyday descriptions.

事じ故こ現げん場ばに人ひとだかりができていた。
A crowd had gathered at the accident scene.
店みせの前まえにはセールを待まつ人ひとだかりがあった。
There was a crowd of people waiting for the sale in front of the store.

See all 11 example sentences ›

Usage patterns

〈場ば所しょ〉に人ひとだかりができるa crowd forms/gathers at 〈place〉
事じ故こ現げん場ばに人ひとだかりができていた。
A crowd had gathered at the scene of the accident.
人ひとだかりをかき分わけるto push one's way through a crowd
彼かれは人ひとだかりをかき分わけて前まえに進すすんだ。
He pushed his way through the crowd to move forward.
人ひとだかりの中なかを覗のぞくto peek into a crowd to see what's going on
何なにが起おきたのか人ひとだかりの中なかを覗のぞいてみた。
I peeked into the crowd to see what had happened.

Kanji

人person
集gather, meet, congregate

Related words

群ぐん衆しゅうN1
群衆 is a formal, often written term for a large mass of people, while 人だかり is a casual word for people gathering around something of interest.
人ひと込ごみN3
人混み emphasizes a crowded, hard-to-move-through place in general, whereas 人だかり focuses on people clustering around a specific point of interest.
野や次じ馬うま
野次馬 highlights the curious onlookers themselves and their nosy motive, while 人だかり describes the resulting crowd or mass as a whole.

Written forms

人ひとだかりUsage96%
Standard spelling; the kanji-kana mix is widely used and avoids the less common pure kanji form.
人集ひとだかりUsage4%
Full kanji spelling; rarely used in modern Japanese. Learners should prefer 人だかり.

Etymology

Compound of 人 (ひと, 'person') and 集り (あつまり → だかり, 'gathering'), with rendaku voicing. The kanji spelling 人集り is etymologically transparent but now rare.