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首筋 (くびすじ) Japanese meaning | Kotomora

首くび筋すじ

く

び

す

じ

Freq.FrequencyTop 50,000

Meanings

1

noun

nape of the neck; back of the neck; scruff of the neck

Refers to the back of the neck, often in contexts of tension, touch, or grabbing someone by the scruff.

首くび筋すじがこっている。
My neck is stiff.
彼かれは猫ねこの首くび筋すじをつかんだ。
He grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck.

Written forms

首くび筋すじUsage84%
Standard kanji spelling; high frequency in news and general usage.
首くびすじUsage13%
Mixed kanji-kana spelling; sometimes used for readability or when the second kanji is less familiar.
頸くび筋すじUsage2%
rarely-used kanji form
Rarely used kanji form; 頸 is a non-jōyō kanji for 'neck'.

くびすじUsage2%

頚くび筋すじ

rarely-used kanji form

Rarely used kanji form; 頚 is a variant of 頸.

Kanji

首neck, counter for songs and poems
筋muscle, sinew, tendon
頸neck, head
頚neck, head

Similar words

うなじ
うなじ specifically refers to the nape of the neck, often with a more poetic or feminine nuance, while 首筋 is a broader, more anatomical term for the back of the neck.
首くび
首 is the general word for 'neck', while 首筋 specifically refers to the back of the neck.

Etymology

Compound of 首 (kubi, 'neck') + 筋 (suji, 'line, muscle, sinew'). The reading くびすじ is a straightforward combination of the kun'yomi readings of the two kanji.