How do you say "lunch" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "lunch" is 昼食 (chūshoku). It is a noun pronounced "choo-shoh-koo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Illustration of lunch from Noun Town

Pronunciation

昼食 is written in kanji. Romanised as chūshoku, it sounds roughly like "choo-shoh-koo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

このお店の昼食はとてもおいしいです。

Kono omise no Chūshoku wa totemo oishii desu.

The lunch at this shop is very delicious.

Usage notes

Chūshoku (昼食) is the Japanese word for lunch. Food vocabulary is among the most practical for daily life in Japan and is used constantly in markets, restaurants, and home cooking.

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Questions about 昼食

How do you pronounce 昼食?

昼食 is romanised as chūshoku. Say it roughly like "choo-shoh-koo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 昼食 formal or casual?

昼食 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 昼食 written in Japanese?

昼食 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.