Tiredness and sleep – Japanese mimetics
へとへと, くたくた, うとうと – six Japanese words for being worn out and for dozing off, with example sentences.
くたくた · of a thing: gone limp, worn thin; of a person: limp with fatigue
Limpness after effort, long cooking or long wear: a body, but also a thing, that has lost its firmness.
The limpness sits in the root くた (as in くたびれる, “to tire out, to wear out”), not in the voiceless く itself. The same root with the 濁点 stands in ぐったり, but what separates it from くたくた is not the diacritic — it is the shape: AっBり shows a body that has already gone slack, plain to see from outside, and it attaches with する／と, not だ／になる. The limpness of the root reaches things too — くたくたのシャツ, くたくたに煮る: the same word describes a worn-out thing, and へとへと is never said of a thing at all.
Examples
- 破れはないが、シャツの張りが抜けてくたくただ。The shirt isn't torn, just limp and shapeless.
- 茹ですぎて、ほうれん草がくたくたになった。I overboiled the spinach and it went all limp.
へとへと · to be barely on one's feet from exhaustion
Exhaustion at the very end of your strength: still on your feet, but only just.
The mark exists, the pair does not: the 濁点 gives べとべと, but that is a separate word — about stickiness, not tiredness. Here the exhaustion is carried by the repeated ABAB shape itself. What is restricted is the attachment: だ and になる, never する — 彼はへとへとだった is correct, 彼はへとへとする is not. Its neighbour ぐったり speaks of a body that has already gone slack (力なく横たわる, うなだれる); as long as you are still on your feet and moving, it is へとへと, not ぐったり.
Examples
- 引っ越しで疲れ、体力を使い果たしてへとへとだ。The move has drained me; I'm utterly spent.
- 子守に疲れ、気力も尽きてへとへとになった。Minding the kids drained every last drop of me.
うとうと · to doze off
Sleep you keep falling out of.
The ABAB shape means “over and over” here — dozing off and waking. The AっBり shape of this root is うっとり — and it means something else: rapture, being entranced, not sleep. Sleep slept through is a separate word, ぐっすり. すやすや speaks of even, quiet breathing, that is of sleep that lasts; うとうと of sleep that keeps breaking.
Examples
- 心地よい眠気で、だんだんうとうとしてきた。Pleasantly drowsy, I gradually begin to doze off.
- 心地よい午後、何度もうとうとと船をこいだ。On a pleasant afternoon I kept nodding off.
すやすや · to sleep peacefully, breathing evenly
The even, quiet breathing of a sleeper.
Voiceless す keeps the breathing even and quiet. What separates its neighbours is not a diacritic but the sleep itself: うとうと keeps breaking, ぐっすり is deep and slept right through, and すやすや says nothing about depth — which is why it fits a light sleep too, as long as the breathing stays even. The word itself lives on a verb — すやすや眠る, never すやすやする.
Examples
- 赤ちゃんが規則正しい寝息ですやすやと眠る。The baby sleeps peacefully, breathing evenly.
- 子どもがすやすやと寝息を立てている。The child is breathing softly and evenly in sleep.
よろよろ · to totter along
No strength left in the legs, and every step is close to a fall.
There is no voiced partner here. The dictionary describes this word in a single line — 力なく倒れそうになりながら歩くさま — and that is all of it: walking with a body that has run out of strength. Nothing about a destination; 酔ってよろよろと歩き回る is an ordinary sentence. So よろよろ is simply narrower than ふらふら: ふらふら takes the same scene and adds dizziness (熱でふらふらする) and aimlessness itself (目的もなくふらふらする) — よろよろ says nothing about either, because it speaks only of the walk.
Examples
- 疲れ果てた足で、よろよろとゆっくり歩き続けた。On exhausted legs I kept tottering slowly on.
- 重い荷物に疲れ、一歩一歩よろよろしながら進む。Worn out by the heavy load, I totter step by step.
ぱんぱん · to be swollen tight
Legs or a belly so full they might burst.
The 半濁点 gives fullness stretched to its limit. The 濁点 form ばんばん would be banging, not a state.
Examples
- 歩き疲れて、ふくらはぎが張ってぱんぱんだ。Tired from walking, my calves are swollen tight.
- 立ち仕事で疲れ、足がむくんでぱんぱんになる。Standing at work tires me; my legs swell up tight.
Where this comes from
Everything above comes from the free part of the Onomatope app and has passed its content review.
App Store →Free app with an in-app purchase
- OnomatopeManga and anime vocabulary