よく

Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spellings
良く 善く 克く 能く

Alternative forms

• (dialect):
  • よう (yō)
• (elongated):
  • よおく (yōku)
• (having astonishing ability or guts):
  • よう (yō)
  • よくぞ (yoku zo)
  • よくも (yoku mo)

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) よく [yóꜜkù] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [jo̞kɯ̟]

Adjective

よく • (yoku) 

1. 良く, 善く, 克く: adverbial form of よい (yoi, “good”) good, well
   1. adverbial form of いい (ii, “good”)

      よくやった。

      Yoku yatta.

      Well done!

      よく来(き)たな。

      Yoku kita na.

      Well done for making it this far.

2. 良く: frequently, often

   私(わたし)は本(ほん)をよく読(よ)みます。

   Watashi wa hon o yoku yomimasu.

   I read books a lot.

3. 良く, 善く: having astonishing ability or guts

   よくそんなこと言(い)えるね。

   Yoku sonna koto ieru ne.

   You've got guts saying something like that.

4. 能く: (literary) able to
   • Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, kanbun kundoku:

     能(よ)く之(これ)を行(おこな)う者(もの)

     yoku kore o okonau mono

     those who can do this

Antonyms

• 全(ぜん)然(ぜん) (zenzen): (with negative verbs) not at all; completely never

See also

• 余(あま)り (amari): (with negative verbs) not very often; not much
• 時(とき)々(どき) (tokidoki): sometimes, at times, occasionally

Etymology 2

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

【欲】6 [noun] desire, a want, that which is wanted [noun] greed, avarice [noun] ambition, will Alternative spelling 慾

【翼】S [noun] a wing (of a bird or insect) [noun] (aviation) an airfoil [noun] (military) a flank [noun] a blade (of a propeller, turbine, etc.) with the same cross section of an aircraft wing [counter] counter for wings of birds [counter] (by extension) counter for birds [counter] counter for boats [affix] wing (of a bird, insect, aircraft, etc.) [affix] (by extension) something overhanging both left and right, like a wing [affix] assist, help, support [proper noun] (Chinese astronomy) the Wings constellation, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions [proper noun] a female given name

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