How do you say "underwear" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "underwear" is 下着 (shitagi). It is a noun pronounced "shee-tah-gee".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Illustration of underwear from Noun Town

Pronunciation

下着 is written in kanji. Romanised as shitagi, it sounds roughly like "shee-tah-gee" to an English ear.

Example sentence

この下着は私には少し大きいです。

Kono Shitagi wa watashi ni wa sukoshi ookii desu.

This underwear is a little big for me.

Usage notes

Shitagi (下着) means underwear in Japanese. Clothing vocabulary is useful for shopping, describing outfits, and understanding fashion-related conversations.

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Questions about 下着

How do you pronounce 下着?

下着 is romanised as shitagi. Say it roughly like "shee-tah-gee" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 下着 formal or casual?

下着 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 下着 written in Japanese?

下着 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.