寂しい (sabishii or samishii) means “lonely” or “desolate.” It can describe a person missing company or a place that feels empty. Both さびしい and さみしい are used; the kanji spelling does not show which reading is intended. The word can also describe something that feels lacking.
also samishii / sabishikatta / sabishisou
lonely · lonesome · desolate · bare
Sentences
寂しい · plain
plain。
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一人暮らし
ひとりぐらし ［4］
living alone
noun · 一人 one person ＋ 暮らし living
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は
は
as for — the topic
particle · written は, read わ
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寂しい
さびしい ［3］
is lonely
い-adjective · polite 寂しいです, and never 寂しいだ
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Living on your own gets lonely.
寂しくなる · the change
plain past、。
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友達
ともだち ［0］
friend
noun · unmarked for number — one friend or several
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が
が
marks the subject
particle · what the sentence is about — with 好き, 分かる and potentials, the object
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帰って
かえって
went home, and…
て-form of 帰る · 帰る is going back where you belong
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少し
すこし ［2］
a little
adverb · ちょっと is its spoken twin
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寂しく
さびしく
lonely — going into a change
adverbial 寂しい · the い becomes く in front of なる
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なった
なった
became
plain past of なる · the verb of turning into something
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My friend went home, and it got a bit lonely.
寂しかったら · conditional
plain、。
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寂しかったら
さびしかったら
if you get lonely
たら-conditional · past stem 寂しかった ＋ ら
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電話
でんわ ［0］
a phone call
noun · 電話する is the verb, no を needed
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して
して
do it — and…
て-form of する · with ね it becomes a soft request
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ね
ね
…all right?
sentence-ending particle · invites the listener to agree
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If you get lonely, give me a call.
さみしそう · the other reading
plain past。
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彼女
かのじょ ［1］
she; her
pronoun · also means girlfriend, exactly like 彼
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は
は
as for — the topic
particle · written は, read わ
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さみしそうな
さみしそうな
looking lonely
さみしい ＋ そう · the look of a feeling you can't see directly
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顔
かお ［0］
face; expression
noun · 顔をする is the set phrase for wearing a look
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を
を
marks the direct object
particle · pronounced お
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していた
していた
was wearing
past ている of する · a look held over a stretch of time
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She had a lonely look on her face.
寂しい · a place, not a person
plain。
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この
この
this
determiner · この goes straight onto a noun, never この の
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町
まち ［2］
town
noun · 街 is the same reading for the shopping-street sense
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は
は
as for — the topic
particle · written は, read わ
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夜
よる ［1］
night
noun · here it feeds 夜になる, become night — this に is compulsory
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に
に
to; at; into
particle · a point something reaches — a place, a time, a person, or a state
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なる
なる
becomes; comes round
godan verb · 〜になると is 'once it gets to be…'
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と
と
whenever — and then
particle · the conditional と, for results that always follow
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寂しい
さびしい ［3］
is bleak; deserted
い-adjective · of a place it means empty, not sad
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This town turns bleak after dark.
寂しい · of a thing
plain。
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財布
さいふ ［0］
wallet
noun · 財 wealth ＋ 布 cloth
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の
の
links noun to noun
particle · A の B = B belonging to A
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中
なか ［1］
the inside
noun · Xの中 is 'inside X'
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が
が
marks the subject
particle · what the sentence is about — with 好き, 分かる and potentials, the object
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寂しい
さびしい ［3］
is looking bare
い-adjective · of a thing it means there is not enough in it
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My wallet is looking a bit thin.
Forms
Noun ＋ は＋寂しい
一人暮らしは寂しい. A plain い-adjective: polite 寂しいです, negative 寂しくない, past 寂しかった (sabishikatta). Never 寂しいだ.
寂しく＋なる
The い drops to く before なる: 寂しくなった, it got lonely. This is the form for the change — the moment the room emptied, not the state after.
寂しそう＋な ＋ Noun
寂しそうな顔 (sabishisou na kao) — a face that looks lonely. You cannot state another person's feelings flatly in Japanese, so そう or がる does the hedging for you.
Person ＋ が＋寂しがる
犬が寂しがっている — the dog is pining. がる turns a feeling into observable behaviour, which is why it is used of other people and animals but not of yourself.
Meaning
さびしい and さみしい are the same word. Both are standard, both are in the dictionaries, and the kanji 寂しい is read either way — which means the writing gives you no clue and the reader supplies whichever they say themselves. さびしい is the older reading and the one broadcasters and dictionaries lead with; さみしい is softer, extremely common in speech and everywhere in song lyrics. Neither is wrong. If you want one rule: say さびしい in a classroom, and expect さみしい from a friend.
寂 and 淋 are two spellings of it too. 寂しい is the standard form and the one on the official kanji list. 淋しい — the water radical, dripping — is the older literary spelling, still used deliberately in fiction and lyrics for a wetter, more personal loneliness. Write 寂しい; recognise 淋しい.
悲しい is sad; 寂しい is missing something. You can be 寂しい in a perfectly good mood — a friend moves away and the flat feels wrong. 悲しい needs a loss to grieve over. The two overlap at funerals and almost nowhere else, and translating both as “sad” is the single commonest way to flatten a Japanese sentence.
心細い is loneliness with fear in it. Literally “thin-hearted”: alone and unsure you can manage — a first night in a new city, a hospital corridor. 寂しい wants company; 心細い wants reassurance. And 孤独 is the noun for the condition rather than the feeling — isolation as a fact of somebody's life, which is why it turns up in essays and headlines and rarely in conversation.
Inside the word
A roof 宀 over what was once a sound-related element: quiet under a roof. Buddhism took it for the silence after everything stops — 寂滅, 静寂 stillness — and it also gives 寂れる, for a town that has emptied out.
Water 氵 beside a wood 林, originally dripping or pouring. 淋しい is the literary way to write the same word and is not on the official kanji list, so it never appears in newspapers — but novelists and lyricists still choose it for a wetter, more private loneliness.
The び/み swap is an old sound change that never finished, so both readings survived into standard Japanese. Dictionaries list さびしい first and give さみしい its own entry; the accent table gives them the same shape, with the drop after the third mora. Nothing in the kanji tells you which one a writer meant.
Watch out
悲しい is sad. 寂しい is missing something — you can be in a fine mood and still 寂しい because the flat is too quiet. Using 悲しい for a friend moving away overstates it and sounds theatrical.
Japanese does not let you assert another person's inner state as fact. Use 寂しそう (it looks that way), 寂しがっている (they are showing it), or 寂しいらしい (I hear). Bare 寂しい about a third person reads as a mistake.
寂しいだ is not Japanese. An い-adjective already carries its own tense and politeness: 寂しい, 寂しいです, 寂しかった, 寂しくない. The だ belongs to nouns and な-adjectives only.
Also asked
Both. They are two readings of the same word and the same kanji, and both are standard Japanese. さびしい is older and is what dictionaries and broadcasters lead with; さみしい is softer, very common in speech and dominant in song lyrics. Since 寂しい can be read either way, a written sentence does not choose for you.
寂しい is the absence of somebody or something; 悲しい is grief. A friend moving abroad makes you 寂しい; a death makes you 悲しい. English collapses both into “sad,” which is why learners reach for 悲しい far too often.
I was lonely — the plain past. 寂しい is an い-adjective, so it inflects by itself: 寂しかった, polite 寂しかったです, negative past 寂しくなかった. There is no だった anywhere in the paradigm.
Yes, and it is one of the word's best uses. この町は寂しい — the town is deserted. 財布が寂しい — my wallet is thin. 口が寂しい — my mouth wants something, the Japanese for peckish. The through-line is the same in all of them: something that should be filling the space isn't.
Not with a bare 寂しい. Use 寂しそう for how they look, 寂しがっている for how they are behaving, or 寂しいらしい for what you have heard. A person who needs company by temperament is a 寂しがり屋 (sabishigariya).
寂しい. It is the standard form and the one on the official list of everyday kanji, so it is what you will meet in print and what you should write. 淋しい is the older literary spelling — worth recognising in a novel or a lyric, where it is chosen for effect rather than by default.
References
Kotobank: 寂しい — Records loneliness, emptiness and feeling that something is lacking.
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