also: きょう
noun
Usually read さかい. Refers to a line or division between places, properties, categories, or opposing sides.
隣の家との境に塀を立てた。
We put up a fence on the boundary with the neighboring house.
県と県の境を川が
A river runs along the border between the prefectures.
noun
Only with reading さかい
Read さかい and very often used in the pattern ...を境に, meaning that something changes from that point onward.
その事故を境に、彼の生活は大きく変わった。
His life changed greatly after that accident.
結婚を境に、彼女は地元を離れた。
Her marriage marked the point at which she left her hometown.
noun
area; region; place; environment
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Usually read きょう. This is a literary or Sino-Japanese-style use for a place, region, sphere, or surrounding condition, not the ordinary word for an everyday area.
古い文章では、境が「場所」や「世界」のような意味で使われることがある。
In older writing, 境 may be used to mean something like a place or realm.
noun
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Usually read きょう. Common in elevated expressions for a spiritual, artistic, or psychological state, such as 無我の境.
彼は演奏中、無我の境に入っていた。
During the performance, he entered a state of selfless absorption.
長い修行の末、悟りの境に近づいた。
After long training, he drew near to a state of enlightenment.
noun
cognitive object; object of perception
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Buddhist technical use, read きょう, for something taken as an object by the sense organs or the mind.
仏教では、境は心や感覚の対象を指す。
In Buddhism, 境 refers to an object of the mind or the senses.