Synonym game

In this game, someone will start a thread with a word in Japanese, and someone will respond with a word that means something similar. They don’t have to mean the exact same thing, in fact that is discouraged, as we try to take one word, eventually to something else, very different. Please include the hiragana, and English equivalent of each word, in spoiler tags, so people can learn new words!

Tip: Word that have similar meanings, but different uses, can be used, so that the next person can use the second word with a word that has a different meaning, but the same use (if that makes sense), this can completely change the future synonyms.

Example:

少ない | すくない | few

少数 | しょうすう | a few

If someone makes a mistake, correct them and continue from their word, and if someone uses a word that makes absolutely no possible sense with the previous word, just continue from the previous word, but reply to the most recent post, with a small note as to why you are skipping their synonym as to confuse less people.

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I’ll start with 少数 | しょうすう | a few

少し すこし - a little

小さい | ちいさい | small (I’m playing off of “a little” in English having “little” which is a synonym for small. It’s definitely cheating, but this is what I meant, so we don’t get caught in an infinite loop)

I wouldn’t consider it cheating. You could define すこし as 数量が小さいさま if you wanted.

Next word: 一歩いっぽ (step, one step, a small amount)

少しずつ(すこしずつ- little by little)

次々 - one by one

一つずつ・ひとつずつ・one by one, one each, one at a time

一人分 ひとりぶん one person’s portion, one person’s share

一人筋 ひとりすじ singleminded (one person’s mind) It’s a bit of a stretch. lol

頑固 がんこ -stubborn

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硬い・かたいstubborn, obstinate, stable, solid, hard

フォーマル - formal (synonym of 硬い in the sense of language usage, for example)

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敬語・けいご・honorific speech

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世辞 :せじ :flattery

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褒める・ほめる・to praise, to admire

胡麻を擂る・ごまをするto curry favor, to butter up (lit. “to grind sesame seeds”)

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下位 (にます) | かい(にます) | subordinate (to be) ] maybe a stretch idk

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亜種・あしゅsubspecies

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種族・しゅぞく・race

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