凶作
きょうさく
bad harvest; crop failure
By Nihongo PathUpdated
Examples
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.
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.
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
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What does 凶作 mean?