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息苦しい (いきぐるしい) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
JLPT N1 › Freq. Frequency Top 20,000 Conjugation 息苦しい · i-adjective
Form Positive Negative Dictionary 息いき 苦ぐる しい 息いき 苦ぐる しくない Polite 息いき 苦ぐる しいです 息いき 苦ぐる しくないです also 息いき 苦ぐる しくありません Past polite 息いき 苦ぐる しかったです 息いき 苦ぐる しくなかったです also 息いき 苦ぐる しくありませんでした Past 息いき 苦ぐる しかった 息いき 苦ぐる しくなかった Te-form 息いき 苦ぐる しくて 息いき 苦ぐる しくなくて Adverbial 息いき 苦ぐる しく Conditional 息いき 苦ぐる しければ 息いき 苦ぐる しくなければ Tara conditional 息いき 苦ぐる しかったら 息いき 苦ぐる しくなかったら
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くう
気き
が
こもっ
て
い
て
息いき
苦ぐる
しい
。
This room is stuffy and hard to breathe in.
Wearing a mask can sometimes feel suffocating.
Usage patterns 〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 の 空くう 気き が 息いき 苦ぐる しい the air in a place is stifling
The air inside the crowded train was suffocating.
息いき 苦ぐる しさを 感かん じる to feel suffocated / stifled
During the meeting, he felt a sense of suffocation.
息いき 苦ぐる しい 雰ふん 囲い 気き an oppressive, tense atmosphere
The classroom becomes tense and oppressive when the boss is there.
〈 事こと 〉 で 息いき 苦ぐる しくなる to feel stifled because of something
The strict rules made the workplace feel stifling.
Kanji 息 breath, respiration, son Related words 息苦しい specifically describes trouble breathing or a stifling atmosphere, while 苦しい is the broader word for any kind of physical or mental pain and hardship.
重苦しい describes a heavy, gloomy mood or atmosphere, while 息苦しい in its figurative sense emphasizes a feeling of being unable to breathe freely under tension or pressure.
窮屈 describes a cramped, restrictive feeling (physical or social), while 息苦しい focuses on the sensation of suffocation that such restriction can cause.
息苦しい is an adjective describing a stifling, hard-to-breathe feeling or atmosphere, while 息が詰まる is a verb phrase describing the sudden sensation of one's breath being blocked.
Don't confuse with 心苦しい looks similar but means feeling sorry or guilty about something, whereas 息苦しい means physically or atmospherically suffocating.
息苦しい is an adjective describing a suffocating or stuffy feeling, while 息切れ is a noun/verb for the condition of being out of breath or losing momentum.
寝苦しい describes difficulty sleeping due to heat, noise, or worry, while 息苦しい describes physical difficulty breathing, such as in stuffy air or from anxiety.
Etymology Compound of 息 (iki, 'breath') + 苦しい (kurushii, 'painful, difficult'). The reading いきぐるしい reflects rendaku voicing of くるしい to ぐるしい.
息苦しい describes physical difficulty breathing or a suffocating sensation, while 重苦しい describes an emotionally or atmospherically heavy, oppressive quality.