そば

Japanese

For pronunciation and definitions of そば – see the following entries.

[noun] [from the 1400s] buckwheat

[noun] [from the early 1500s] soba, soba noodle, a variety of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat

[noun] [from 1500s or 1600s] a kind of low, flat, broad tea bowl, originally produced on the Korean peninsula and favored in tea ceremony, so called for the color of the glaze

[noun] [from 1811] (archaic) a night-time streetwalker (specifically an unlicensed prostitute); from the way that night-time sellers of soba noodles via food carts would walk the streets in search of customers

[noun] [from 1867] (archaic) sixteen of something (when counting); from the way that a length of 16 文 (mon, a traditional Japanese unit of length; 1 mon = approximately 2.4cm) worth of soba noodles would fill a single serving bowl

Alternative spelling
𛁛𛂦゙

【側】4	[noun] vicinity, near, beside, side Alternative spelling 傍

(This term, そば (soba), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.)
For a list of all kanji read as そば, see Category:Japanese kanji read as そば.