From my understanding, 気づく is more "to realise" and 分かる is more to
"understand" right?

Where does 悟る fall in comparison to these 2? Is it more towards "realising" or
"understanding"? Or is it completely different with some nuance I'm missing?
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meaning word-choice kanji nuances kanji-choice
悟る vs 気づく vs 分かる Satoru vs Kizuku vs Wakaru
> From my understanding, 気{き}づく is more "to realise" and 分{わ}かる is more to
> "understand" right?

Right, at least basically so.

> Where does 悟る fall in comparison to these 2? Is it more towards "realising"
> or "understanding"? Or is it completely different with some nuance I'm
> missing?

Looking at the way you phrase your question, I would say you are missing
something important.

「悟{さと}る」, when used correctly, would always carry a religious and/or
philosophical overtone. Unlike 「気づく」 and 「分かる」, 「悟る」 is in no way a word that
one would use on a daily basis. It is simply a much bigger and nuanced word
than the other two.

「悟る」 has the meanings of **_"to become spiritually aware of", "to be
philosophically awakened", "to have an epiphany"_** , etc.

You need to realize and/or understand something pretty much life-changing to
use 「悟る」 unless you use it, as some people do, for exaggeration.

In case you did not know, the noun form "satori" has already made its way into
many foreign languages including English.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satori>

That is not going to happen with "kizuki" or "wakari" in our lifetime. Why
not? Because every language would already have its counterparts for those.
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悟る is much more nuanced and much less common than 気づく/分かる, but it still can be
used safely in day-to-day conversations of ordinary people. Outside
religious/philosophical contexts, 悟る is basically closer to "to realize (some
important fact/truth)". Its object is usually something out of control of the
speaker, something that initially seemed vague or hidden. The realized fact is
often (but not always) unpleasant to the speaker. 悟る usually involves a
certain amount of reasoning process (in this sense, "to understand" is not too
far, either).

>   * その写真を見て夫が浮気していると悟った。  
>  I saw the photo and realized my husband was cheating.
>   * 彼の死期が近いと悟った。  
>  I realized he was close to death.
>   * そのスピーチを聞いて、もう故郷には帰れないことを悟った。  
>  After listening to the speech, I realized we could never return to our home
> town.
>

気づく can mean "to realize", but its basic meaning is more like "to notice." The
object of 気づく can be any (unimportant) event which is directly perceivable and
does not require reasoning (e.g., 床にごみが落ちているのに気づいた).

As l'électeur said, 悟る also has a religious/spiritual meaning, "to be
enlightened/awakened". Check the actual usages of this verb in a corpus and
[all these entries on ALC](https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E6%82%9F%E3%82%8B).
Note that [悟り](https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E6%82%9F%E3%82%8A) is an
established religious concept which almost always means enlightenment (and
[that's how masu-stem
works](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/32311/5010)).
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I think 悟る、気づく are close to epiphanic moment. You are working on something
really hard and all of sudden discover how to do it. However I think 悟る is
often used for an attainment after putting huge amount of effort and almost
giving up the effort. I think the attainment is often made when you are
exhausted.

On the other hand 気づく is more of so-called eureka/aha moment such as
Archimedes realized that the displacement of the volume of water must be equal
to the volume of the part of his body he had overflowed when his bathing. It's
more relaxed.

悟る might be preferred to use for getting the essence of something accompanied
with your body feel whereas 気づく occurs in your mind.

分かる is a neutral and versatile word for realizing.
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