Sample Sentence with 味覚

味覚 (mikaku: taste, palate, sense of taste)

風邪で彼の味覚は鈍くなっていた。
Kaze de kare no mikaku wa nibuku natte ita.
A cold dulled his sense of taste.

風邪 (kaze: a cold)     wind + wicked

When read as kaze, this word is ateji, because the yomi of the characters don’t match the reading of the compound. However, you can also read this word as fūja, and then the yomi match perfectly. In any case, I love the breakdown: the wicked wind of the west gave me a cold!

彼 (kare: he)
鈍 (nibu(i): dull, slow)

Exploring 鈍 …

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