罪深い
つみぶかい
adjective-i
sinful; deeply guilty; terribly wrong
Conjugation
| Affirmative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| Present | 罪深い | 罪深くない |
| Past | 罪深かった | 罪深くなかった |
| て form | 罪深くて | 罪深くなくて |
| Adverbial | 罪深く | — |
| Conditional ば | 罪深ければ | 罪深くなければ |
| Conditional たら | 罪深かったら | 罪深くなかったら |
1.
sinful; deeply guilty; terribly wrong
Describes an act or a person carrying great moral, religious, or emotional guilt. While it can literally describe sins in a religious sense, in everyday Japanese it is often used exaggeratedly (sometimes playfully) to mean "deeply wrong" or "too irresistibly tempting" — as when a dessert is so good it feels sinful to eat.
罪深い行い。
A sinful deed.
夜中にケーキを食べるなんて、なんて罪深いんだろう。
Eating cake in the middle of the night — how sinful of me.
彼は自分のしたことがどれほど罪深いかを理解し、深く後悔していた。
He understood how deeply wrong what he had done was, and was deeply remorseful.
Composed of 罪 (sin, crime, guilt) and the suffix -深い (deep). The compound literally means "having deep sin." It ranges from literal religious or legal "sinful" to metaphorical use in everyday speech, where it frequently appears as an exaggerated, half-joking description of irresistible indulgences.
USAGE:
- Serious use: describes acts that violate moral or religious principles
- Light/playful use: describes guilty pleasures (rich food, sleeping in, skipping work)
- Self-deprecating use: speakers use it about their own indulgences with a wry tone
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 罪深い行い: a sinful act
- 罪深い人間: a sinful person
- なんて罪深いんだろう: how sinful (of me/them)!
- 罪深い味: a sinfully good taste (informal, of food)
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 罪な: cruel, heartless — often of someone toying with others' feelings
- 悪い: bad — general-purpose, much weaker
- 邪悪な: evil, wicked — stronger, more formal
- 後ろめたい: guilty-feeling — emphasizes the internal feeling of guilt