Ways to say it
| Japanese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| 液体 | ekitai | [e̞kʲi̥ta̠i] (narrow) |
| 流体 | ryūtai | [ɾʲɨːta̠i] (narrow) |
| リキッド | rikiddo | [ɾʲikʲid̚d̥o̞] (narrow) |
The term 液体 refers to a substance that is liquid (noun). When you want to describe something being in a liquid state, you can use the term 液状.
What does it mean word for word?
The word 液体 is composed of the characters 液, meaning liquid or fluid and 体, meaning body or substance.
Which one should you use?
While 液体 is the standard term for a liquid in both general and scientific contexts, 流体 is a specific technical term used in physics to refer to a 'fluid', a category that includes both liquids and gases. Additionally, リキッド is a katakana loanword typically used in commercial contexts, such as for liquid-based cosmetics or makeup products.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
液体 is the most common and general word for liquid in Japanese. 流体 is a technical term for 'fluid' used in science or engineering, and リキッド is a loanword used primarily in commercial product naming.
How do you pronounce it?
ekitai
Did you know?
- The kanji 液 is composed of the 'water' radical on the left and a phonetic component on the right, visually encoding the meaning of water into the word for liquid.
- If you are looking for 'liquid' ingredients in a Japanese supermarket, you are more likely to see them categorized by their physical state or form rather than the word 液体 itself.
- The character 液 (eki) is also used in the word for 'lymph' in biology, as lymph is a type of fluid in the body.
Examples in context
- 水は液体である。Water is a liquid.This sentence illustrates the use of 液体 to identify water as a liquid.Tatoeba #143773 by bunbuku, translation #270793 by CK
- 地球は内部の高温の液体金属の中心核とともに高速回転するので、地球全体を覆うような磁場を発生させる。The rapid spin of the Earth along with the liquid, hot metallic core causes a magnetic field to surround the Earth.This sentence uses 液体 to describe the liquid, hot metallic core of the Earth.Tatoeba #6855713 by Sonata, translation #3955504 by Hybrid
- お薬はお茶色の液体でありました。The medicine was a brown liquid.This sentence uses 液体 to describe the appearance of medicine.Tatoeba #1680855 by aka_aj, translation #681371 by Source_VOA
- 飲み物は何が好き？水でもいい？What kind of drink do you like? Is water fine?
- 2 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Misaki and Yota are in a chemistry class.
- 陽太 Yotaこの液体は何色ですか？Kono ekitai wa nani-iro desu ka?What color is this liquid?
- 美咲 Misakiそれは青い液体ですよ。Sore wa aoi ekitai desu yo.That is a blue liquid.
- 陽太 Yota触っても大丈夫でしょうか？Sawatte mo daijoubu deshou ka?Is it okay to touch it?
- 美咲 Misakiいいえ、液体なので注意してください。Iie, ekitai nanode chuui shite kudasai.No, please be careful because it is a liquid.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “liquid” translations and entries 液体, 流体, リキッド, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
