How to say "surgery" in Japanese

• 手術しゅじゅつJLPT N3approx.Common
  noun, suru verb, transitive verbThis is the word for the operation itself — the procedure a patient undergoes. Use it when saying that someone has, needs, or recovers from surgery.
  手術しゅじゅつをしなければなりません。↗

  You have to have an operation.
• 外科げかJLPT N2approx.Common
  nounThis refers to surgery as a branch of medicine, the specialty concerned with operating on patients, rather than to an individual operation; it is not the word for having surgery.
  これらの患者かんじゃには外科げか的てきな処置しょちだけでは十分じゅうぶんとは言いい難がたい。↗

  For these patients, surgical treatment is far from being satisfactory.

Use 手術 for an actual operation, the procedure a patient undergoes, and 外科 for surgery as a branch of medicine, for example when speaking of a doctor's specialty.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 手術しゅじゅつsurgery
• 外科げかsurgery (branch of medicine)
• サージェリーsurgery
• 外科学げかがくsurgery (academic discipline)
• 外科手術げかしゅじゅつsurgery
• 外科的手術げかてきしゅじゅつsurgical operation
• 外科治療げかちりょうsurgical treatment