ご飯（ごはん、gohan）
- rice / meal

The Japanese word ご飯, pronounced ご（go） and 飯（han）, most commonly translates to "cooked rice" or "meal" in English. It's a fundamental word in the Japanese language, representing a staple food and, by extension, the concept of eating a meal. The meaning can vary slightly depending on context. It often refers specifically to cooked rice, the central element of most Japanese meals. However, ご飯 can also broadly refer to any meal, including breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is a very versatile word.

⚫︎ 朝ご飯を食べました。 Translation: I ate breakfast. ⚫︎ 今日の晩ご飯は何ですか？ Translation: What's for dinner today? ⚫︎ ご飯をたくさん食べます。 Translation: I eat a lot of rice.

⚫︎ Use ご飯 when referring to cooked rice. ⚫︎ Use ご飯 when referring to a meal in general. ⚫︎ The context usually clarifies whether the speaker is talking about rice or the entire meal. For example, if someone asks 「朝ご飯］を食べましたか？」, they are asking if you ate breakfast. ⚫︎ ご飯 is a common and polite word, suitable for most situations.

⚫︎ The word ご飯 is usually written in hiragana as ごはん。 ⚫︎ The kanji form is ご飯, where 御 is a polite prefix and 飯 means "cooked rice" or "food." There are no variations in okurigana (suffix hiragana).

⚫︎ 食事（しょくじ） - meal (more formal) ⚫︎ 昼食（ちゅうしょく） - lunch ⚫︎ 夕食（ゆうしょく） - dinner ⚫︎ 朝食（ちょうしょく） - breakfast

There are no direct antonyms for ご飯 because it is a broad term. Words related to not eating could be considered antonyms in a loose sense: ⚫︎ 食べない（たべない） - do not eat ⚫︎ 空腹（くうふく） - hunger

毎朝、美味しいご飯を食べるのが楽しみです。 ・Translation: I look forward to eating delicious rice every morning. ・Explanation: This sentence uses ご飯 to refer to the central element of breakfast: rice.

今日のご飯はカレーです。 ・Translation: Today's meal is curry. ・Explanation: Here, ご飯 means the meal itself, and the speaker specifies that the meal is curry.

The word is composed of: ⚫︎ 御（ご） - A prefix, often used to make a word more polite or honorific. ⚫︎ 飯（はん） - Cooked rice, or food. The combination 御（ご） + 飯（はん） gave rise to ご飯.