グラム

• Reading: ぐらむ
• Romaji: guramu
• Kanji breakdown: 瓦 (ga/kawara) — roof tile; used as phonetic kanji for 'gram'
• Pronunciation: /ɡɯ.ɾa.mɯ/

Meaning

Gram; gramme. The standard unit of mass in the metric system.

A loanword from French 'gramme' used for measuring weight. Commonly encountered when shopping for food, cooking, or discussing nutrition. Often combined with prefixes: キログラム (kilogram), ミリグラム (milligram). The kanji 瓦 may appear in official documents but katakana is the standard writing. Grocery stores typically label items in grams: 百グラム (100 grams).

Examples

1. 肉を三百グラムください。 Three hundred grams of meat, please.
2. この荷物は五百グラムです。 This package weighs five hundred grams.
3. バターを五十グラム入れてください。 Please add fifty grams of butter.

Usage Guide

Context: shopping, cooking, nutrition

Tone: neutral

Origin & History

From French 'gramme,' derived from Late Latin 'gramma' meaning a small weight. The kanji 瓦 (originally meaning roof tile) was assigned as a phonetic abbreviation. Adopted with the metric system during the Meiji era.

Cultural Context

Era: Meiji

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal