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道Nihongo Path

凶作

きょうさく

bad harvest; crop failure

By Nihongo PathUpdated

Examples

  1. 今年は米が凶作だそうだ。

    ことしはこめがきょうさくだそうだ。

    They say the rice harvest has failed this year.

  2. 昨年は異常な冷夏で、稲作は10年ぶりの凶作だった。

    さくねんはいじょうなれいかで、いなさくはじゅうねんぶりのきょうさくだった。

    Last summer was abnormally cool, and the rice crop was the worst in ten years.

  3. 凶作が続けば、農村の暮らしは立ち行かなくなる。

    きょうさくがつづけば、のうそんのくらしはたちいかなくなる。

    If the crops fail year after year, life in the farming villages becomes unsustainable.

Common patterns

凶作になる
to end in a failed harvest
米の凶作
a failed rice crop
凶作が続く
poor harvests continue

Memory tip

凶 signals calamity (凶器, 凶暴), so 凶作 is a harvest that has gone badly wrong. Its opposite is 豊作, a bumper crop; a merely thin year is 不作.

Kanji in this word

Quick check

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What does 凶作 mean?