絶対

Taken apart

1. 絶

   ぜっ (from ぜつ)

   discontinue

2. +

3. 対

   たい

   vis-a-vis

Select a part to see every word so far that is taken apart with it.

Wiktionary's text doesn't split this word, so each part is one of its kanji (with the okurigana written after it), with the reading and the dictionary meaning KANJIDIC2 gives that character — a word doesn't always use every sense of its kanji.

Written with 絶対

In a sentence

• 絶対(ぜったい)確実(かくじつ)だ。

  There is no doubt.

  Tatoeba #141934, translation #272636

• 絶対(ぜったい)無理(むり)だね。

  No way.

  Tatoeba #141932, translation #272638

Sentences are from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), picked by fixed rules from a dated export and shown unchanged. Nobody has reviewed them one by one.

What Wiktionary says

Quoted line by line from Wiktionary's Etymology section for this reading, taken from one dated dump so it can't change underneath us. Nothing below is paraphrased.

• “Coined by Japanese philosopher Inoue Tetsujirō in 1881 in his work 哲学字彙 (Tetsugaku Jii, “Dictionary of Philosophy”) as a calque of English absolute, based on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra (《法華玄義》), changing the spelling from 絶待 to 絶対.”

Source: Wiktionary: 絶対 (dump of 2026-09-02), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Reading, meaning and part of speech from JMdict, and kanji readings from KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG).

What the labels mean

漢語 Sino-Japanese

Words built from Chinese-derived morphemes — borrowed from Chinese or coined in Japan out of Chinese parts — read with on'yomi.

Compound

Two or more words or stems joined into one.

Rendaku

The first sound of the second part voices when two native words join (kami → -gami).

Made in Japan

Coined in Japan from foreign material (wasei-kango, wasei-eigo), not borrowed whole.