鬼おにごっこ

お

に

ご

っ

こ

Common wordFreq.FrequencyTop 50,000

Meanings

1

noun

tag; tig

A children's game where one player, the 'oni' (it), chases the others to tag them.

Usage patterns

〈人ひと〉と鬼おにごっこをするto play tag with someone
公こう園えんで友とも達だちと鬼おにごっこをした。
I played tag with my friends at the park.
鬼おにごっこで鬼おにになるto be 'it' in a game of tag
じゃんけんで負まけて鬼おにごっこの鬼おにになった。
I lost at rock-paper-scissors and became 'it' in the game of tag.

Kanji

鬼ghost, devil

Related words

かくれんぼ
鬼ごっこ is a chasing game where the 'oni' tries to tag the other players, while かくれんぼ is hide-and-seek, where players hide and the seeker tries to find them.
タグ
鬼ごっこ is the normal Japanese word for the children's chasing game, whereas タグ is a much more casual loanword for the same game.

Don't confuse with

かくれんぼ
隠れんぼ is hide-and-seek where players hide and one seeker finds them, while 鬼ごっこ is tag where the seeker chases and touches the others.

Built from

鬼おに+ごっこ

Written forms

鬼おにごっこUsage73%
Standard kanji-kana spelling for the children's game of tag.
おにごっこUsage27%
Kana spelling is common in children's contexts and easy to read.

Etymology

Compound of 鬼 (oni, 'demon' or 'it' in tag) and ごっこ (gokko, 'pretend game'). The name reflects the game's premise of one player acting as the 'oni' who chases others.