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I saw that both can mean liver. Is there a specific context for each of these
words? Some situation where it would be more correct to use one and not the
other.

And i read that **肝** is also used as a metaphor for the most important part
of something, can someone give me an example?
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2020-04-23T16:16:06.630
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question
word-choice words word-usage
what is the difference between 肝臓 and 肝 • 胆?
肝 and 胆 refer to different organs.

  * **肝臓【かんぞう】** : The most common word for "liver".
  * **肝【かん】** : The same as 肝臓, but medical experts prefer this, especially in writing, because it's shorter.
  * **胆嚢【たんのう】** : [Gallbladder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallbladder), not liver.
  * **胆【たん】** : Medical experts prefer this to 胆嚢.
  * **肝 • 胆** : It's not a single word, but just "liver and gallbladder". These two organs are often paired like this because they form the [hepatobiliary system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biliary_tract).

As food, liver is called レバー or キモ. You would see them at _yakiniku_
restaurants.

Metaphorically, 肝心【かんじん】 (na-/no-adj) and 肝【きも】 (noun) refers to the most
important point of a procedure or information. You can say
"肝心なのは80℃以上に温めないことです", "ここが肝ですよ、よく聞いてください", etc. 肝心 is sometimes spelled as
肝腎, too, but I believe 肝心 is more common.
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2020-04-23T22:43:51.157
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answer
肝臟 simply means “liver”.

I suspect 肝•胆 might have come from a longer phrase，[肝胆相照らす](https://gimon-
sukkiri.jp/kantan/).

It comes from the Chinese idiom, “肝膽相照”, which describes two inseparable
friends, as well as the frankness they show each other.
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2020-04-24T07:25:11.430
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