Comparle

Japanese3 Nov 2026feelings

boketto

ぼけっとboh-KET-toh[bo̞ke̞tto̞]

gazing into the middle distance with nothing at all going on inside

Closest in English: staring, spacing-out, zoning-out. None of them covers it.

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The story

Japanese keeps a mimetic word for the blank stare: boketto suru, to sit and let the head empty out. It is what happens at a train window when the fields go by and nothing at all is required of you. English treats the same face as a fault and calls it gormless.

How it went in the game

Contains the answers. If you want to play the word yourself first, leave this closed.

  1. Which language is it from?Japanese
  2. When does it come over you?Halfway down a long queue at the bank
  3. Where would you hear it?At a window on a slow train
  4. What does it mean?Gazing at nothing, thinking nothing

How it went

Harder than most words so far.

Round four, meaning, was where most points went.

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