18048
体{からだ} and 身体{からだ} (or even 躰{からだ}) seem to be used interchangeably, is there
a nuance difference between them?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-29T08:18:13.083
18027
2017-03-17T11:57:11.093
2017-03-17T11:57:11.093
1805
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question
words kanji
For body: 身体 or 体
Great question! I love [this answer from
知恵袋](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q109825005). I'll
provide a minimal translation.

## Difference in Writing

  * 体 is the standard way of writing it. 身体 is not.

## Difference in Meaning

  * 体 actually has quite a few meanings. It can refer to the physical body itself, but it can also carry a meaning more akin to "health". On top of this, it can refer to pretty much _any_ kind of body, be it human, animal, or otherwise (例：[車体]{しゃたい} ["body of a car"]). A few other things as well, but those are the most important definitions. ([Full 三省堂 definition.](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BD%93%E3%83%BB%E8%BA%AF%E3%83%BB%E8%BB%80%E3%83%BB%E8%BA%AB%E4%BD%93?dic=daijirin&oid=DJR_karada_-010))
  * 身体, which can be read either からだ or しんたい, is much narrower: **it can only refer to the physical (flesh) body** , either human or animal (from what I understand, this is regardless of which of the two readings you use). Furthermore, it can come across as being more academic -- you'd quickly come across this word in, say, medical literature.

**Generally speaking you're gonna want to use 体** , since it's the more
standard way of writing it. Newspapers and other general-audience writing will
most likely use it. That being said, there might be situations in which you'd
prefer 身体; if you were wanting to emphasize the actual physical body, for
instance.

**Summary: They mean basically the same thing, but 身体 emphasizes the physical
nature of the body and sounds a bit more academic.**
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-29T12:49:42.540
18030
2014-07-29T12:49:42.540
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
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answer
In short:

  * 体【からだ】: normal way to say "body".
  * 身体【しんたい】: sounds more technical/academic/physical, and only mean the bodies of humans and large animals. Bodies of machines and robots are technically referred to as 筐体【きょうたい】.
  * 身体【からだ】: another generally accepted way of writing "からだ" in kanji, and it's a 熟字訓. It's not taught at school, but virtually all Japanese people recognize this readings.

The difficult part is the difference between 体【からだ】 and 身体【からだ】. For example,
which one of the following is the better way to say "Take care of yourself?"

> お体【からだ】を大事にしてください。  
>  お身体【からだ】を大事にしてください。

It seems that there is no single answer here. Yahoo! Chiebukuro has at least
three questions about this ([link
A](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1222436112), [link
B](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1433382224), [link
C](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1314087763)), and
different answers were accepted as the best answer.

And the number of Google results:

  * お体を大事に: 794,000
  * お身体を大事に: 346,000
  * お体を大切に: 160,000
  * お身体を大切に: 1,210,000
  * 体を休める: 4,700,000 (may include the results of 身体を休める)
  * 身体を休める: 2,180,000

My personal choice was 体【からだ】, because I felt 身体【からだ】 is used mainly in novels
and lyrics. But now I'm aware that there are many people who prefer 身体【からだ】 in
such cases. After all, I seems to me that both of 体【からだ】 and 身体【からだ】 are
equally OK as long as you're using this to human body, and as long as you're
not writing something for dictionaries or news media.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-30T07:37:18.640
18048
2014-07-30T07:49:17.023
2014-07-30T07:49:17.023
5010
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18027
answer