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木っ端微塵 (こっぱみじん) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Freq. Frequency Top 100,000 Conjugation Meanings 1
noun, noun or participle which takes 'suru'
smithereens ; broken into tiny pieces
usually written using kana alone
Describes something shattered or crushed into very small fragments, often used with verbs like 砕く, 壊す, or in the adverbial form 木っ端微塵に. It is usually written in kana.
彼かれ の 計けい 画かく は 木こ っ 端ぱ 微み 塵じん に 打う ち 砕くだ か れ た 。
His plan was smashed to pieces.
Written forms 木こ っ 端微塵ぱみじん
Standard kanji spelling with っ for the geminate.
木こっ 端ぱ 微み 塵じん
Variant without the small っ; less common but still seen.
木こっ 葉ぱ 微み 塵じん
Rare variant using 葉 instead of 端.
こっぱ 微み 塵じん
Mixed kana-kanji spelling; sometimes used.
木こ っ 端ぱ みじん
Mixed kanji-kana spelling with みじん in kana.
Kanji 微 delicate, minuteness, insignificance Similar words 粉こな 々ごな 粉々 also means 'broken into small pieces' but is more common and less emphatic; 木っ端微塵 implies a more violent or complete destruction into tiny fragments.
ばらばら ばらばら describes things scattered or separated into parts, not necessarily broken; 木っ端微塵 specifically means smashed into tiny bits.
Etymology Compound of 木っ端 (koppa, 'wood chip') and 微塵 (mijin, 'tiny particle'), literally 'wood-chip dust'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the phrase has been used since the Edo period to mean something completely smashed.
