余り

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
あま
Grade: 5
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
餘り (kyūjitai)

Alternative forms

  • (adverb):

Etymology

The 連用形 (ren'yōkei, continuative or stem form) of verb 余る (amaru, to be left over, to be in excess).[1][2] Appears in the Kojiki of 712 CE.[1]

Also encountered with geminate reading あんまり (anmari) as an emphatic form for the adjective and adverb uses. This form appears in the 1400s.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun, adjective:

Emphatic adjective:

Adverb:

Emphatic adverb:

Adjective

(あま) or (あんま) (amari or anmari-na (adnominal (あま) (amari na), adverbial (あま) (amari ni))

  1. excessive, extreme
  2. terrible, awful

Usage notes

This is used both as a -na adjective with the (na) attributive particle, and as an attributive noun followed by (no).

Inflection

Adverb

(あま) or (あんま) (amari or anmari

  1. (chiefly in the negative) often, much, excessively
    Antonym: 時々 (tokidoki, sometimes, at times, occasionally)
    西村(にしむら)さんは(あさ)(はん)あまり()べません。
    Nishimura-san wa asagohan o amari tabemasen.
    Nishimura does not eat breakfast very often.
    ()()あんまりですが、
    Mitame wa anmari desu ga,
    The appearance is not very , but
    • 2009, けいおん!
      あんまりうまくないですね!」
      Anmari umakunai desu ne!”
      "You guys are not very good, are you?"

Usage notes

This term is often spelled in hiragana.

See also

Noun

(あま) (amari

  1. remainder
    Synonym: 余分 (yobun)
  2. (somewhat literary) an abundance of something, an excess of something
    (うれ)さの(あま)()てしまう
    ureshisa no amari ni naite shimau
    to cry from an excess of happiness
    ()きすぎるあまり
    sukisugiru amari
    liking so, so much

See also

Suffix

(あま) (-amari

  1. used after a numeral to express “a little more than”
    二十(にじゅう)(あま)建物(たてもの)
    nijū amari no tatemono
    twenty-odd buildings, twenty-some buildings
  2. (archaic) Used to connect numerals: and
    はづきとおかあまりいつか(a native reading of 八月十五日, which is today read as はちがつじゅうごにち (hachigatsu jūgonichi) for “August 15th”)
    hazuki tōka amari itsuka
    the 15th day of the 8th month

Usage notes

  • The word is used to connect native Japanese numerals (ひとつ, ふたつ etc.) into numbers, e.g. 'ten' and 'five' into 'fifteen' rather than 'ten, five'. It is not used when counting in Chinese numerals (いち, etc.).

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN