How to say "flag" in Japanese
Choosing the right word
- 旗はたnounThe general word for a flag as a physical object: a piece of cloth on a pole, such as a national or signal flag. The default choice for the everyday sense of 'flag'.
- nounThe katakana loanword for a physical flag, largely overlapping with 旗 and used especially for flags in sports and racing. For the everyday cloth-on-a-pole sense, 旗 is the more general choice.
- nounThe computing term: a flag in the sense of an indicator or boolean value recording a state in a program. It is not used for a physical flag — that is 旗.
- 国籍こくせきnounCovers 'flag' only in the nautical sense: the country whose flag a ship or aircraft sails under, i.e. its nationality or registration. It never refers to the cloth flag itself; use 旗 for that.
For a physical flag use 旗, or the loanword 「フラッグ」 heard especially in sports and racing; 「フラグ」 is the computing sense, an indicator or boolean value; 国籍 gives 'flag' only as a ship's or aircraft's nationality.
Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only
Japanese equivalents
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