音読み: ハク
訓読み: うすい・うすめる
画数: 16
部首: くさかんむり（艹）
Meaning
Thin / Weak / Light / Faint
- Basic forms
- 薄める — dilute; thin out / base form
- 薄めます — dilutes; thins out / masu form
- 薄めた — diluted; thinned out / ta form
- 薄めて — diluting … / te form
- 薄めない — do not dilute / negative
- 薄めれば — if (one) dilutes / conditional
- Common expressions
- 水で薄める — dilute with water
- 味を薄める — weaken the flavor
- 薬を薄めて使う — use medicine after diluting it
- More
- 少し薄めすぎた — diluted it a bit too much / result
薄める（うすめる） is an ichidan transitive verb. It means to reduce strength, concentration, or density — commonly used for liquids, flavors, colors, or effects. It is widely used in everyday conversation.
- 薄い — thin; light; weak
- 薄める — to dilute; to water down
- 軽薄 — frivolous; superficial
- 希薄 — scarce; diluted
- 空気が薄い — thin air
- 印象が薄い — weak impression
薄 combines the grass radical 艹 with the phonetic part 溥 (ホ / ハク), giving the idea of something spread out thinly, like sparse vegetation. By extension, it came to mean “thin, weak, faint,” whether describing material, emotion, or presence.