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Japanese vocabulary · Beginner
How do you say "ladybug" in Japanese?
てんとう虫
tentou mushi
In Japanese, "ladybug" is てんとう虫 (tentou mushi).
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Pronunciation
Tentou mushi is ten-toh-moo-shee, four steady beats, the word literally meaning heaven-facing insect.
Writing and usage
てんとう虫 is written using kanji. It's a noun, and this word is also taught inside the Noun Town language learning game, where it appears in interactive lessons alongside hundreds of other everyday words.
Example sentence
赤いてんとう虫が指の上を這っていました。
akai tentou mushi ga yubi no ue wo hatsu teimashita.
A red ladybug crawled along my finger.
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How to remember てんとう虫
A ladybug so proud it tilts toward heaven, ten-toh, showing off its red mushi shell.
Related words
- firefly ホタル hotaru
- grasshopper バッタ batta
- caterpillar イモムシ imomushi
- termite シロアリ shiroari
- wasp スズメバチ suzumebachi
- moth 蛾 ga
- newt イモリ imori
- salamander サンショウウオ sanshouuo
- gecko ヤモリ yamori
Browse all Japanese words in the glossary.
Questions about てんとう虫
How do you pronounce てんとう虫?
Tentou mushi is ten-toh-moo-shee, four steady beats, the word literally meaning heaven-facing insect.
Is てんとう虫 formal or casual?
てんとう虫 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 てんとう虫 written in Japanese?
てんとう虫 is written using kanji. Romanised, it reads as tentou mushi.
Where can I practice Japanese words for free?
You can play free Japanese minigames in your browser on the Noun Town online games page, with no sign-up needed. Every word in the Japanese glossary also has native audio and an example sentence you can revisit any time.
"Ladybug" in other languages
Curated by Callan Ratcliffe
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