Get the appGet the app
Japanese frequency list

No. 1,216 in Japanese

あるいは

"Or" or "possibly."

In a sentence

  • 明日は晴れるか、あるいは雨が降るかもしれません。

    Tomorrow might be sunny or it might rain.

    Here, 'あるいは' is used as a conjunction meaning 'or', presenting alternative possibilities.

  • あるいは、あなたが正しいのかもしれません。

    Perhaps you are correct.

    In this sentence, 'あるいは' means 'perhaps', indicating a possibility.

  • 夏休みには、ハワイあるいは沖縄に行きたいです。

    During summer vacation, I want to go to Hawaii or Okinawa.

    Here, 'あるいは' is used to list options, functioning as 'or'.

Hear it in real podcasts

The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “あるいは” in actual Japanese podcasts.

Find “あるいは” in podcasts

Learn it from shows you like

LangTurbo plays Japanese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

Learning English?

LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 日本語, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

Japanese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).