相図 Sign / Level 11

I have a question about 相図, which is listed as “Sign” and a reading of あいず。

I can’t find this word in the dictionary, and when I look up sign I always get 合図 for sign, with the same reading. Is this a mistake or just a rare form?

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It is just an alternate form of 合図. 相図 - Jisho.org

I’m not sure what dictionary you’re using, but in mine it does come up under “sign, signal, cue” but it inst the first one to come up. The one you listed is my first option. I have no input on its meaning or usefulness other than that lol

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I was using my Storm trooper dictionary, but on jisho it comes up as 合図, and in my IME it will only allow for 合図.

Jisho has 相図 as an ‘alternate form’ but that’s the only place I can find it. If I go to google images and type in 相図 I get a bunch of mathematical diagrams. If I type in 合図, I get signs. This leads me to believe that there may be an error here.

合図 and 相図 share the same meaning of a sign/signal/cue, but 合図 is generally preferred in that case (in spoken form there would be no difference since they’re both read as あいず)

相図 also means “phase diagram”, which is it’s most common usage

(Phase diagrams are typically used in chemistry/engineering to show the relationship between thermodynamic phases and equilibrium points)

Example of a simple phase diagram:

So if you find yourself talking about signals and cues, it’s more common to use 合図, and if you ever find yourself talking about phase diagrams, use 相図 :slight_smile: :chart_with_upwards_trend:

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Neato, As a chemist in training, I find bits of info like this to be complete gems. Thanks. 相図 is phase diagram! I will definitely remember that.

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Yeah, it’s neat if you’re a chemist but if you just want to know how to write ‘sign’ its misleading.

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That is fair. They should probably clarify that for that word.

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Hmm, I wasn’t aware that the name of my favourite anime character means sign. That’s… ok, I guess? :joy:

Haha, I felt this was very confusing too when learning 相図, so as soon as I saw that “phase diagram” was a valid synonym, I latched onto that meaning.

The meaning of “phase diagram” has a different reading, it’s そうず. But both kanji forms are acceptable forms of the “sign” meaning with the あいず reading. The word あいず meaning “sign” is not a visual thing, so that’s why if you try searching for 相図 you’re going to mostly get phase diagrams, even though あいず is an acceptable reading.

I don’t think WK necessarily needs to clarify anything unless they also want to add a new vocab meaning phase diagram with the different reading.

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Thanks for explaining that. Makes more sense to me now. My bad.

Well, evidently there was an issue with 相図 because it’s been removed.

I don’t see why you phrased it that way. There’s no “issue” with 相図, but since it’s a word that has multiple ways of being written, they could go with either one and be right. I was saying they didn’t need to add anything about phase diagrams to it, which assumed they left it as 相図, but they chose to go with 合図 which is also correct and isn’t related to the phase diagram thing.

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