How do you say "lake" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "lake" is (mizuumi). It is a noun pronounced "mee-zoo-oo-mee".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

湖 is written in kanji. Romanised as mizuumi, it sounds roughly like "mee-zoo-oo-mee" to an English ear.

Example sentence

この建物には大きな湖があります。

Kono tatemono ni wa ookina Mizuumi ga arimasu.

This building has a large lake.

Usage notes

Mizuumi (湖) means lake in Japanese. This noun describes a feature or object found in indoor or outdoor environments.

Related words

Curated by Jack Ratcliffe

Practice 湖 and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 湖

How do you pronounce 湖?

湖 is romanised as mizuumi. Say it roughly like "mee-zoo-oo-mee" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 湖 formal or casual?

湖 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 湖 written in Japanese?

湖 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.