ChiramiKuchisabishii: snacking because your mouth is lonely (口寂しい)
Kuchisabishii (口寂しい) is the feeling of wanting something in your mouth when you aren’t really hungry: the reason you open a bag of snacks in front of the TV, or chew gum at your desk. It’s made of 口, mouth, and 寂しい, lonely. Your mouth is lonely, so you give it some company.
What the kanji say
口 (kuchi) is a mouth, and it began as a simple drawing of one. It’s one of the first kanji learners meet, and it turns up in words like 入口 (iriguchi), an entrance, literally an “enter mouth”.
寂 (sabi, jaku) means lonely, quiet or desolate. Its top, 宀, is a roof, and 叔 underneath mostly gives the sound, so you can picture a silent, empty house. It’s the kanji in 寂しい (sabishii), lonely, and also in 寂 (sabi), the quiet beauty of old, worn things, as in wabi-sabi, わびさび.
You’ll hear the word said three ways, kuchisabishii, kuchisamishii and kuchizamishii, and dictionaries list all three. 口淋しい, with a different kanji for “lonely”, is also correct.
What it really means
Japanese dictionaries define it as the feeling of wanting to put something in your mouth: a snack, a sweet, a cigarette. So it isn’t only about food. The example the Digital Daijisen dictionary gives is 口寂しくてタバコをすう, “my mouth feels lonely, so I smoke”.
It has a second, smaller meaning too: a meal that leaves you wanting a bit more. 一人前ではちょっと口寂しい means “one portion isn’t quite enough”.
The word isn’t new. Japan’s biggest dictionary, the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, quotes it from a kabuki play of 1779.
How to use it
口寂しくて、ついお菓子を食べちゃう。
Kuchisabishikute, tsui okashi o tabechau.
My mouth gets lonely, and I end up eating sweets.
口寂しいときは、ガムをかんでいます。
Kuchisabishii toki wa, gamu o kande imasu.
When I want something in my mouth, I chew gum.
たばこをやめてから、なんだか口寂しい。
Tabako o yamete kara, nandaka kuchisabishii.
Since I quit smoking, I keep wanting something in my mouth.
夜になると、口寂しくなる。
Yoru ni naru to, kuchisabishiku naru.
At night I start wanting a little something.
- It’s a craving, not hunger. If you’re actually hungry, say お腹が空いた (onaka ga suita). Kuchisabishii is the urge to nibble even when you’ve eaten.
- A little bit hungry is 小腹が空いた (kobara ga suita), “my small belly is empty”: the in-between feeling, when a snack would hit the spot.
- The snacking itself is 間食 (kanshoku), eating between meals, or おやつ (oyatsu), a snack, especially one in the afternoon.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 寂しい | sabishii | lonely |
| 静寂 | seijaku | silence, stillness |
| 寂れる | sabireru | to become run-down and deserted |
| 入口 | iriguchi | entrance |
| 口癖 | kuchiguse | a phrase someone always says |
| 無口 | mukuchi | quiet, not talkative |
Remember it
Picture a mouth (口) sitting alone in a silent, empty house (寂). It isn’t hungry, just lonely, so it wanders off to the snack drawer looking for company.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.