時雨(しぐれ)

しぐれ
noun
passing shower of late autumn and early winter
weathertime-season
1. a passing shower in late autumn or early winter
Rain that falls briefly and then stops, coming and going as the clouds pass over. Tied to the season from late autumn into early winter, and one of the classic seasonal words of poetry.
時雨(しぐれ)が降(ふ)ってきた。
A passing shower has started.
京都(きょうと)の冬(ふゆ)は時雨(しぐれ)が多(おお)い。
Winter in Kyoto has many passing showers.
時雨(しぐれ)に濡(ぬ)れた紅葉(もみじ)が、石(いし)だたみに張(は)りついていた。
Maple leaves wet from the passing shower were stuck to the stone pavement.

An irregular reading: the kanji 時雨(しぐれ) are read しぐれ as a unit rather than syllable by syllable.

Common collocations

  • 時雨(しぐれ)が降(ふ)る: a passing shower falls
  • 北山(きたやま)時雨(しぐれ): the showers that sweep down over northern Kyoto
  • 蝉(せみ)時雨(しぐれ): the shower-like din of cicadas (a summer word, by analogy)

Cultural note

A standard 季語(きご) (seasonal word) for early winter in haiku, carrying a mood of transience and quiet melancholy — Basho's death poem is set in a 時雨(しぐれ). It also appears in given names and in the food name 時雨煮(しぐれに), a soy-simmered dish.

Related Words

Related: 秋雨(あきさめ) (autumn rain)
general
Added 2026.8.25 21:29 · Revised 2026.9.2 13:02
30500/30753_shigure