How do you say "dentist" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "dentist" is 歯医者 (haisha). It is a noun pronounced "hah-ee-shah".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Illustration of dentist from Noun Town

Pronunciation

歯医者 is written in kanji. Romanised as haisha, it sounds roughly like "hah-ee-shah" to an English ear.

Example sentence

町には優秀な歯医者がいます。

Machi ni wa yuushuu na haisha ga imasu.

There is a skilled dentist in town.

Usage notes

Haisha (歯医者) is the Japanese word for dentist. Job titles in Japanese use a variety of endings: shi (士) for licensed professionals, sha (者) for workers, while modern roles often use katakana loanwords.

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Questions about 歯医者

How do you pronounce 歯医者?

歯医者 is romanised as haisha. Say it roughly like "hah-ee-shah" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 歯医者 formal or casual?

歯医者 is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.

How is 歯医者 written in Japanese?

歯医者 is written using kanji. Kanji characters carry the core meaning; any hiragana or katakana that follow show grammatical endings.

This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.