夢 – 8 Words for Dreams in Japanese
Japanese has several different words for types of dreams. Many of the words are types of dreams that you may already know about. But, Japanese has specific words for these dreams which don’t exist in English. Let’s take a look
INDEX
How do you say Dream in Japanese?
夢 is the Japanese word for dream in Japanese. It basically means the same thing in English and refers to not only dreams in your sleep, but even dream jobs, dream life styles and so on.
ゆめ vs む
All of the words about dreams in Japanese are based on this word, or the character for dream. So, for some words you will pronounce 夢 as ゆめ and others as む. ゆめ is the Kunyomi reading and actual Japanese word for dream, and む is the Onyomi reading of the character or the name of the character.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Kunyomi and Onyomi made Simple
How to say to Dream in Japanese
In English you say dream for the noun and also dream to refer to the verb, to dream. Japanese on the other hand does not have a verb for dream. Instead, you would say to see a dream when you want to say you are dreaming.
夢を見る
to see a dream
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at the individual words for types of dreams in Japanese.
悪夢 – Nightmare
悪夢 is the Japanese word for nightmare. It is the same as the English word, and just like 夢 you would say you see a nightmare.
悪夢を見る
to see a nightmare
悪 means bad or evil in Japanese. So, the direct translation would be bad dream.
初夢 – First Dream of the Year
初夢 means first dream. It refers to the first dream that you would have in the new year. Depending on the dream, it is said to foretell someone’s luck for that year.
明晰夢 – Lucid Dream
Just like in English, Japanese has a word for lucid dreams which is 明晰夢. If we break this down, 明晰 means for something to be clear, well-defined, understood and so on. So, in the word 明晰夢, it means that it is a dream that you clearly know is a dream.
予知夢 – Prophetic Dream
予知 means, precognition or to foretell something. So, the word 予知夢 in Japanese means a prophetic dream about something that is going to happen in the future.
Do Dreams Come True?
That question maybe up for debate, but in Japanese there are two words that do explain dreams coming true and not coming true.
正夢 – A Dream that Comes True
We know that 予知夢 is a prophetic dream for something to happen in the future. How about if the dream actually does come true though? In that case we would call it 正夢. The word or character here, 正 means truth. So, this would mean 正夢 translates to a true dream.
逆夢 – A Dream that doesn’t Come True
Not all dreams become reality. Now that we know that 正夢 is for dreams that do, what about those that don’t? In Japanese we would call these dreams 逆夢. These are the dreams that don’t happen or actually dreams where the opposite thing happens. 逆夢 translates directly to reverse dream. It can be translated other ways like a contradictory dream, or a false dream though.
Lucky and Unlucky Dreams
In Japanese there are two Kanji for luck. 吉 is for good and 凶 for bad luck. These two characters are used also to talk about lucky and unlucky dreams in Japanese
吉夢 – Lucky Dream
In dream fortune-telling, or dream interpretation known as 夢占い in Japanese, 吉夢 are lucky dreams or good omen dreams. These are the dreams where you see something that indicates something good is going to happen. This type of a dream is different from 予知夢 which foretells an event. 吉夢 are dreams that show something symbolically which represents some equivalent positive event to come in the real world.
凶夢 – Unlucky Dream
Dreams are not all lollipops and Unicorns. 凶夢 are the opposite of 吉夢. These dreams are for bad omen about things to come. Again, they are not about actual events but symbolic of things to happen. Also, they are not the same as 悪夢 which are nightmares. 凶夢 may not be a bad dream at all but depending on what shows up in it, the dream could be telling you that bad or unlucky things are to come when you awake.
If you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.
