野の良ら犬いぬ

の

ら

い

ぬ

Freq.FrequencyTop 50,000

Meanings

noun

stray dog

A dog without an owner, living on the streets or in the wild.

公こう園えんに野の良ら犬いぬがいた。
There was a stray dog in the park.

See all 8 example sentences ›

Kanji

野plains, field, rustic
良good, pleasing, skilled
犬dog

Related words

野や犬けん
野良犬 typically describes a stray dog wandering near human settlements, while 野犬 sounds more formal and can refer to dogs living truly wild.

Opposites

飼かい犬いぬ
野良犬 is a stray dog with no owner, the direct opposite of a 飼い犬, which belongs to someone.

Built from

野の良ら+犬いぬ

Written forms

野の良ら犬いぬUsage93%
Standard kanji spelling; the most common written form.
のら犬いぬUsage7%
search-only kanji form
Search-only mixed kanji-kana form; not a standard spelling.

Etymology

Compound of 野良 (のら, 'field' or 'wild') and 犬 (いぬ, 'dog'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word has been used to refer to ownerless dogs since at least the Edo period.