Japanese symbol for “bait”
餌
えさ
Romaji: esa
(animal) feed; fodder; pet food
In Japanese, bait is 餌, read えさ (esa).
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Meanings
- n (animal) feed; fodder; pet food
- n bait; lure; enticement
Written forms: 餌. Readings: えさ、え、エサ.
Kanji and stroke order
Other Japanese words for “bait”
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 釣り | つり tsuri | trolling; bait; making deliberately inflammatory posts online |
| 好餌 | こうじ kouji | bait; decoy; lure |
| 釣り餌 | つりえ tsurie | bait (for fishing) |
| 囮 | おとり otori | decoy; bait; lure |
Related words
Words that share a kanji.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 餌食 | えじき ejiki | prey (i.e. of a predator); kill |
| 餌付け | えづけ ezuke | artificial feeding (of wild animals); accustoming (a wild animal) to accepting food from humans; hand-feeding |
| 給餌 | きゅうじ kyuuji | feeding (an animal) |
| 食餌 | しょくじ shokuji | food (esp. for a medical diet) |
| 撒き餌 | まきえ makie | scattered animal feed; ground bait |
| 生き餌 | いきえ ikie | live bait |
See also: Chinese symbol for “bait”.
Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.