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横切る (よこぎる) Japanese meaning | Kotomora

横よこ切ぎる

よ

こ

ぎ

る

Common wordJLPTN3Freq.FrequencyTop 20,000

Meanings

1

godan verb (-ru), transitive verb

cross; traverse

Used for moving across a road, room, sky, or other space, often implying a horizontal or diagonal path.

猫ねこが道どう路ろを横よこ切ぎった。
A cat crossed the road.
飛ひ行こう機きが空そらを横よこ切ぎっていく

。

An airplane is crossing the sky.

Written forms

横よこ切ぎるUsage92%
Standard kanji spelling; the most common written form.
横よこぎるUsage6%
Mixed kanji-kana spelling; less common but still encountered.
よこぎるUsage2%

Kanji

横sideways, side, horizontal
切cut, cutoff, be sharp

Similar words

渡わたる
渡る is more general for crossing over something (bridge, river, street), while 横切る emphasizes moving across a space or path, often horizontally.
越こえる
越える means to go over or beyond an obstacle or boundary, whereas 横切る focuses on traversing across an area.

Etymology

Compound of 横 (yoko, 'side, horizontal') and 切る (kiru, 'cut'), literally 'to cut across'. The meaning developed from the image of cutting a path sideways across a space.