心
こころ
kokoro
= heart, mind, and spirit together; the seat of feeling and intention
心 is the word English keeps having to split in two, heart for feeling, mind for thought, because in Japanese a single syllable-rich word holds both at once, along with spirit, character, and intention.
心 names the inner self where emotion, thought, and will all reside. Where English separates heart and mind, 心 fuses them: it is the source of kindness, the place sincerity comes from, the spirit behind an action, and the core of a person’s character. It appears in countless expressions about feeling, attention, and intention, from 心配 (worry) to 心を込める (to put one’s heart into something).
Resist translating 心 with a single English word every time; let context choose between heart, mind, spirit, or feelings. Note the reading shifts in compounds: alone it is こころ, but in words like 心配 (しんぱい) or 安心 (あんしん) it takes the on reading しん. Learning those set phrases is often the fastest way to absorb the word’s range.
The character 心 is a pictograph of a heart, originally a drawing of the physical organ. From that image it grew to cover the emotional and mental inner life, and it serves as a building block, sometimes in the compressed forms 忄 or ⺗, in a huge family of kanji about feeling and thought, such as 思 (think), 念 (mind), and 愛 (love).
Everyday use
彼女の優しい言葉が、傷ついた心にしみた。
Kanojo no yasashii kotoba ga, kizutsuita kokoro ni shimita.
Her kind words sank deep into my wounded heart.
Casual / Social Media
プレゼントは値段じゃなくて、心がこもってるかどうかだよね。
Purezento wa nedan ja nakute, kokoro ga komotteru ka dou ka da yo ne.
With a gift it’s not the price, it’s whether your heart is in it, right?
Formal / Cultural context
茶道では、もてなす相手を思う心が何よりも大切にされる。
Sadou de wa, motenasu aite wo omou kokoro ga nani yori mo taisetsu ni sareru.
In the tea ceremony, the heart that considers the guest one is hosting is valued above all.
心 sits at the center of how Japanese talks about sincerity and care. To do something with 心 is to do it with genuine feeling rather than mere form, and praise like 心がこもっている (the heart is in it) marks an act as truly heartfelt. This ideal runs through hospitality, craftsmanship, and gift-giving, where the spirit behind an action is treated as more important than its surface.
The word also anchors a rich vein of literature and philosophy; one of modern Japan’s most celebrated novels is titled simply Kokoro, trusting that single word to evoke the whole tangle of human feeling and conscience. For learners, 心 is a doorway into seeing how Japanese often treats heart and mind not as opposites but as one inseparable inner life.