寒い（さむい、samui）
- cold

The Japanese word 寒い さむい means "cold." It describes the sensation of low temperature, typically referring to the air or the environment. It can also describe a feeling of being chilled. ⚫︎ It is an adjective that describes something that is cold, not a process like "cooling down." ⚫︎ This adjective belongs to the い-adjective class in Japanese, meaning it conjugates like other adjectives ending in "い."

⚫︎ 今日は寒いですね。 Translation: It's cold today, isn't it? ⚫︎ 部屋が寒いから、暖房をつけましょう。 Translation: Because the room is cold, let's turn on the heater. ⚫︎ 手足が寒くて震えます。 Translation: My hands and feet are cold, and I'm shivering.

⚫︎ You use 寒い to describe the temperature of the environment, such as the outside weather or a room. ⚫︎ You can also use it to describe how you feel physically, when you're feeling cold. ⚫︎ It's common to use 寒い as a response to someone's greeting, expressing the weather. ⚫︎ It's often used with adverbs like とても（very), 少し（a little), or すごく（extremely) to express the degree of coldness.

⚫︎ The word 寒い is typically written in kanji as 寒 with the hiragana い (寒い). ⚫︎ The hiragana reading is さむい。

There are no perfect synonyms. Related words include: ⚫︎ 冷たい つめたい (tsumetai) - cold to the touch ⚫︎ 涼しい すずしい (suzushii) - cool (pleasant cold) ⚫︎ 肌寒い はださむい (hadasamui) - chilly ⚫︎ The verb 冷える ひえる (hieru) means to get cold or to cool down, and can be related to 寒い, but is not a direct synonym.

⚫︎ 暑い あつい (atsui) - hot, warm ⚫︎ 暖かい あたたかい (atatakai) - warm

冬は寒いので、コートを着ます。 ・Translation: Because it is cold in winter, I wear a coat. ・Explanation: This sentence demonstrates how 寒い describes the weather in winter.

寒くて、手が赤くなった。 ・Translation: It was cold, and my hands turned red. ・Explanation: This shows 寒い describing a physical feeling and its consequence.

The kanji 寒 itself means "cold." The origin of 寒い comes from the adjective formation process in Japanese, where the root 寒 is combined with the adjectival suffix い.