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What's the difference between 海獣 and 怪獣? Do they both mean the same thing, or
is one proper and the other one not?
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2019-07-10T17:45:19.760
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2019-07-11T04:36:31.920
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question
word-choice
What's the difference between 海獣 and 怪獣?
怪獣【かいじゅう】 is a common word that refers to (big) monsters. This was a popular
genre in the Japanese film industry, and there is an [Wikipedia article
written in English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju). Character-wise, 怪
means "wicked; strange", and 獣 means "beast; monster".

海獣【かいじゅう】 is a rare biological term which refers to [marine
mammals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_mammal) such as seals, whales
and manatees. The kanji 海 means "sea; ocean". This word is normally used in
academic contexts, so usually there is no chance of confusion. But in some
fictional works, it may be also used to refer to "marine monsters" such as
Kraken.
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2019-07-11T02:34:35.197
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answer