Japanese symbol for “shorten”
減らす
へらす
Romaji: herasu
to abate; to decrease; to diminish; to shorten
In Japanese, shorten is 減らす, read へらす (herasu).
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
- v5s, vt to abate; to decrease; to diminish; to shorten
Kanji and stroke order
Other Japanese words for “shorten”
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 縮まる | ちぢまる chijimaru | to shorten; to narrow; to close |
| 縮める | ちぢめる chijimeru | to shorten; to reduce; to condense |
| 切り詰める | きりつめる kiritsumeru | to shorten; to cut short; to trim |
| 略す | りゃくす ryakusu | to abbreviate; to abridge; to shorten |
| 詰める | つめる tsumeru | to shorten; to move closer together |
Related words
Words that share a kanji.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 減少 | げんしょう genshou | decrease; reduction; decline |
| 削減 | さくげん sakugen | cut; reduction; curtailment |
| 加減 | かげん kagen | degree; extent; amount |
| 減速 | げんそく gensoku | deceleration |
| 減る | へる heru | to decrease (in size or number); to diminish; to abate |
See also: Chinese symbol for “shorten”.
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.