"一寸先は闇" meaning in Japanese

See 一寸先は闇 in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

IPA: [isːɯ̟̃ᵝɰ̃ sa̠kʲi ɰᵝa̠ ja̠mʲi] Forms: 一寸先は闇 [canonical] (ruby: (いっ), (すん), (さき), (やみ)), issun saki wa yami [romanization]
Etymology: 一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”), literally ahead of a bit is dark. Etymology templates: {{com-ja|一%寸|いっ%すん|先|さき|は||闇|やみ|pos3=topic marker|t1=Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm|t2=ahead|t4=dark}} 一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”) Head templates: {{ja-pos|proverb|いっすん さき は やみ}} 一(いっ)寸(すん)先(さき)は闇(やみ) • (issun saki wa yami)
  1. unpredictable; no one knows what the future holds.

Download JSON data for 一寸先は闇 meaning in Japanese (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "一%寸",
        "2": "いっ%すん",
        "3": "先",
        "4": "さき",
        "5": "は",
        "6": "",
        "7": "闇",
        "8": "やみ",
        "pos3": "topic marker",
        "t1": "Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm",
        "t2": "ahead",
        "t4": "dark"
      },
      "expansion": "一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”)",
      "name": "com-ja"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”), literally ahead of a bit is dark.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "一寸先は闇",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "一",
          "いっ"
        ],
        [
          "寸",
          "すん"
        ],
        [
          "先",
          "さき"
        ],
        [
          "闇",
          "やみ"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "issun saki wa yami",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "proverb",
        "2": "いっすん さき は やみ"
      },
      "expansion": "一(いっ)寸(すん)先(さき)は闇(やみ) • (issun saki wa yami)",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "name": "Japanese links with redundant alt parameters",
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            "Links with redundant alt parameters",
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese proverbs",
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        },
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          "name": "Japanese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [
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          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "unpredictable; no one knows what the future holds."
      ],
      "id": "en-一寸先は闇-ja-proverb-3vVxM4jI",
      "links": [
        [
          "unpredictable",
          "unpredictable"
        ],
        [
          "no one",
          "no one"
        ],
        [
          "knows",
          "knows"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[isːɯ̟̃ᵝɰ̃ sa̠kʲi ɰᵝa̠ ja̠mʲi]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "一寸先は闇"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "一%寸",
        "2": "いっ%すん",
        "3": "先",
        "4": "さき",
        "5": "は",
        "6": "",
        "7": "闇",
        "8": "やみ",
        "pos3": "topic marker",
        "t1": "Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm",
        "t2": "ahead",
        "t4": "dark"
      },
      "expansion": "一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”)",
      "name": "com-ja"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "一(いっ)寸(すん) (issun, “Japanese classical unit of length equivalent approximately 3.03 cm”) + 先(さき) (saki, “ahead”) + は (ha, topic marker) + 闇(やみ) (yami, “dark”), literally ahead of a bit is dark.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "一寸先は闇",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "一",
          "いっ"
        ],
        [
          "寸",
          "すん"
        ],
        [
          "先",
          "さき"
        ],
        [
          "闇",
          "やみ"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "issun saki wa yami",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "proverb",
        "2": "いっすん さき は やみ"
      },
      "expansion": "一(いっ)寸(すん)先(さき)は闇(やみ) • (issun saki wa yami)",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
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        "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
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        "Japanese links with redundant alt parameters",
        "Japanese links with redundant wikilinks",
        "Japanese proverbs",
        "Japanese terms spelled with first grade kanji",
        "Japanese terms spelled with secondary school kanji",
        "Japanese terms spelled with sixth grade kanji",
        "Japanese terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Japanese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Japanese terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys",
        "Japanese terms written with four Han script characters"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "unpredictable; no one knows what the future holds."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unpredictable",
          "unpredictable"
        ],
        [
          "no one",
          "no one"
        ],
        [
          "knows",
          "knows"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[isːɯ̟̃ᵝɰ̃ sa̠kʲi ɰᵝa̠ ja̠mʲi]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "一寸先は闇"
}
{
  "called_from": "parser/1336",
  "msg": "no corresponding start tag found for </span>",
  "path": [
    "一寸先は闇"
  ],
  "section": "Japanese",
  "subsection": "proverb",
  "title": "一寸先は闇",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Japanese dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (1b9bfc5 and 0136956). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.