A Japanese idea describing what gives a person's life value, meaning, or a reason to live.
Reach for it when naming a personally sustaining source of meaning without reducing it to a career formula
Teaching traditional songs became one part of her ikigai after retirement.
| everyday | |
|---|---|
| warm |
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| formal |
everyday
Fits when a guiding reason for action is the main idea
Careful Purpose can be imposed by duty, while ikigai is personally life-giving.
everyday
reason for living
Fits when clarity matters more than preserving the Japanese term
Careful The phrase can sound grave and misses the ordinary pleasures ikigai may include.
warm
calling
Fits when work or service feels deeply suited to the person
Careful Calling often implies vocation or destiny and is narrower than ikigai.
warm
fulfillment
Fits when satisfaction from living in line with values is central
Careful Fulfillment describes a result, not the continuing source that draws someone forward.
formal
Fits when the concern is how life feels significant or coherent
Careful Meaning is abstract and lacks the everyday motivating quality of ikigai.
formal
Fits when meaning is specifically found in sustained work or service
Careful Vocation excludes relationships, hobbies, and routines that can form an ikigai.
sense of ikigai
The garden gave him a renewed sense of ikigai each morning.
find ikigai
She did not expect to find ikigai in a weekly repair circle.
source of ikigai
Caring for the neighborhood orchard became a source of ikigai.
Keep in mind
Popular four-circle diagrams are not part of the dictionary meaning of ikigai.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Updated
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