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ゴロゴロ gorogoro
Rolling around doing nothing.
What does gorogoro mean?
The sound of something rolling, borrowed for a whole day spent horizontal. The same word also does thunder and a purring cat, so context matters.
Example
雨だから一日中ベッドでゴロゴロしてた。
It was raining, so I lounged in bed all day.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
The story behind gorogoro
Few sound words work as hard. ゴロゴロ does thunder rolling across the sky, a heavy object tumbling downhill, a cat purring on your chest and a stomach complaining before lunch. It is the sound of mass in motion, or of something large that is comfortable.
The domestic sense grew out of that: a whole day spent turning over on the floor with nothing to do. It is the standard answer when someone asks how your day off was, and it manages to be both a confession and a small luxury. One more branch is worth knowing: そこらへんにゴロゴロある means lying around in heaps, which describes something too common to be special.
Get gorogoro in your pocket
ゴロゴロ is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
