JLPT N2 · い-adjective

憎い (nikui)

憎い (にくい, nikui) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “hateful; detestable”. It appears in JLPT N2 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading
にくい
Romaji
nikui
Word class
い-adjective
Level
JLPT N2 (unofficial)

Meaning

  1. hateful; detestable; abominable; vexing; provoking · い-adjective
  2. amazing; fantastic; admirable; lovely; wonderful · い-adjective

Example sentences

かわいさ余って憎さ百倍。
The greatest hate springs from the greatest love.

Sentences from the Tatoeba project, linked to this word in JMdict.

Conjugation of 憎い

い-adjective. Plain and polite forms below; try any other word in the Japanese verb conjugator.

FormJapaneseReading
Present憎いにくい nikui
Negative憎くないにくくない nikukunai
Past憎かったにくかった nikukatta
Negative past憎くなかったにくくなかった nikukunakatta
Te-form憎くてにくくて nikukute
Adverb (~ku)憎くにくく nikuku
Conditional (~ba)憎ければにくければ nikukereba

Kanji in 憎い

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 憎い.

Source: JMdict entry 1403390 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.