Copyright © 2026 Kotomora. All Rights Reserved.
運命 (うんめい) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Report an issue with this page
しん
じ
ます
か
?
Usage patterns 運うん 命めい を 受う け 入い れる to accept one's fate
He accepted his fate and lived quietly.
運うん 命めい に 従したが う to follow/submit to one's fate
She felt she had no choice but to follow her fate.
運うん 命めい が 変か わる for one's fate/destiny to change
That encounter changed his destiny.
運うん 命めい を 切き り 開ひら く to carve out one's own destiny
She carved out her own destiny through her own effort.
運うん 命めい を 共とも にする to share a common fate (with someone)
They vowed to share the same fate until the end.
Expressions 運うん 命めい の 力ちから agency of fate; power of fate · La forza del destino (Verdi opera) Related words· 13 宿命 suggests an inescapable fate tied to one's birth, while 運命 is a broader term that can describe any destiny, good or bad.
定め is a native Japanese word for fate with a poetic, literary flavor, and is also the base of the alternate reading さだめ for 運命.
天命 frames one's fate as a mission or mandate given by heaven, whereas 運命 is a more neutral, general word for destiny.
因縁 emphasizes a karmic cause-and-effect link binding people or events, while 運命 simply names the destined outcome itself.
Show 9 more 運命 is the broad, general word for fate or destiny governing a whole life, while 縁 focuses on the mysterious force that links two people or events.
運命 is the everyday word for fate or destiny, while 命運 is more formal and typically used for the fate of nations, organizations, or a decisive turning point.
運命 is a general word for fate or destiny in the abstract, while 身の上 ties that sense of fate specifically to an individual's personal life story.
Don't confuse with 命運 uses the same two kanji reversed and means the fate of a whole undertaking or nation, while 運命 is used for an individual's personal destiny too.
運勢 refers to one's fortune or luck at a given time (as in horoscopes), while 運命 refers to one's overall predetermined destiny.
運命 means fate or destiny, a fixed course of events, while 運 refers to changeable luck or chance in the moment.
Etymology Compound of 運 (うん, 'fortune, luck') and 命 (めい, 'life, command'). The combination conveys the idea of a life's course as determined by fortune or a higher power.
運命 emphasizes an inescapable destiny or fate, while 運勢 refers to one's current or changeable fortune, as in horoscopes.
運命 is a neutral, general word for fate or destiny, whereas 業 carries a Buddhist moral weight tying one's fate to past deeds.
運命 means fate or destiny in a general sense without any Buddhist causal implication, while 因果 stresses that the fate arises from karmic cause and effect.
運命 is the modern word for fate or destiny, whereas 命 carried that meaning only in archaic usage.
運命 is the common modern word for fate or destiny, while 約束 in this sense is rare, literary, and old-fashioned.
運命 is the common word for fate or destiny, while 数 carries the same meaning only in old-fashioned or literary expressions.
ウンメイ
Usage <1%
さだめ
gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
Gikun/jukujikun reading; literary or poetic nuance, not the everyday reading.