honorific plural suffix; ladies and gentlemen
Honorific pluralizing suffix attached to nouns referring to people, such as 先生方 (teachers) or お客様方 (guests). Used in formal and respectful contexts.
Teachers, thank you for gathering today despite your busy schedules.
Suffix attached to time expressions to indicate approximation, similar to 頃 (ころ). The reading かた is also used in this sense, but がた is more common in modern Japanese.
お客様方のご意見をお聞かせください。
Please let us hear the opinions of our guests.
I will visit around five o'clock tomorrow evening.
I will contact you again around the beginning of next month.
方 is the polite/honorific version of the pluralizing suffix ら, used for respected people as in 先生方 instead of casual forms like 彼ら.
early evening; dusk
early morning; early hours
dawn; daybreak
gentlemen; men · men's (sign on toilet, bathroom, etc. doors)
big shots; higher-ups; VIPs
lady; nobleman's wife
whereabouts
direction of Kyoto; Kansai area; citizens of Kyoto; nobles
a moment ago; just now
Standard kanji spelling for this honorific plural suffix and temporal suffix.
Derived from the noun 方 (かた, 'direction/person'), with a sound change to がた when used as a suffix. The temporal sense likely developed from the idea of 'direction' in time.
a short while ago; just now
hometown; birthplace; native region
enemy side; hostile party
toward evening; in the early evening
male role in kabuki; kabuki actor specializing in male roles · male partner (in a relationship)
direction of the capital; toward Kyoto
nobles; the upper class