King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “disgusting”

Romaji: iya
disliking; not wanting; unwilling (to do); reluctant

In Japanese, disgusting is , read (iya).

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

  1. adj-na disliking; not wanting; unwilling (to do); reluctant
  2. adj-na unpleasant; disagreeable; nasty; horrible; disgusting; undesirable
  3. int no!; quit it!; stop!

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

dislike, detest, hate
on: ケン、ゲン
kun: きら.う、きら.い、いや
13 strokes · JLPT 1

Other Japanese words for “disgusting”

WordReadingMeaning
さいてい saiteiawful; horrible; nasty
いまわしい imawashiiabhorrent; abominable; detestable
にがにがしい niganigashiiunpleasant; disgusting; loathsome
キモイ kimoigross; disgusting
えげつない egetsunaidirty; vulgar; nasty

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
きらい kiraidisliking; hating; detesting
きげん kigenhumour; humor; temper
きらう kirauto hate; to dislike; to loathe
だいきらい daikiraihating; strongly disliking
けんお ken'odisgust; hate; repugnance
すききらい sukikirailikes and dislikes; tastes; preferences

See also: Chinese symbol for “disgusting”.

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.

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