乾く

• Reading: かわく
• Romaji: kawaku
• Kanji breakdown: 乾 (kan/kawa) — dry, parch
• Pronunciation: /ka.wa.kɯ/

Meaning

To get dry; to dry out. Describes the process of moisture evaporating from something.

A Group 1 (godan) verb conjugated with the く row. Intransitive — the thing dries on its own. The transitive pair is 乾かす (kawakasu, to dry something). Commonly used for laundry, paint, throats (喉が乾く), and weather-related drying.

Examples

1. 洗濯物がまだ乾いていない。 The laundry hasn't dried yet.
2. 喉が乾いたから水を飲みたい。 My throat is dry, so I want to drink some water.
3. 今日は天気がいいから早く乾くよ。 The weather is nice today, so it'll dry quickly.

Usage Guide

Context: laundry, weather, daily life

Tone: neutral

Origin & History

The kanji 乾 originally meant 'heaven' or 'dry' in Chinese cosmology (one of the eight trigrams). In Japanese it specialized to mean dry or to dry.

Cultural Context

Era: Classical

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal